Iraq Watch: September 23, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide bomber struck in the heart of central Baghdad on Friday blowing himself up in the midst of a large crowd of people at a public bus station near al-Tayaran square. The bombing killed at least seven people and wounded another 20.

The blast sent large plumes of black smoke rising over Baghdad's early-afternoon skyline.

Elsewhere, two U.S. soldiers were killed in separate incidents yesterday the U.S. military announced on Friday. One soldier was killed and another injured in an IED blast near al-Taqaddum while the other soldier was killed by small-arms fire in Ramadi.

Also in the capital city, Ali Abdul Ridha, a member of the Supreme National Commission for de-Baathification, was assassinated late Friday in the western Shurta neighborhood.

In further sectarian violence, Sunni iman Sheikh Hamid Saleh al-Mashhadani was kidnapped by gunmen near his mosque in Baghdad.

In the northern city of Mosul, at least six bodies have been found since Thursday according to medical sources. Also in the town, located 240 miles north of Baghdad, three officials from the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) were gunned down late Thursday while leaving their office in the eastern Bakri district.

Late Friday, the AP reported that heavy clashes had broken out between coalition forces and insurgents in the largely Sunni city of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad.