30 people killed in Baghdad explosion

Police believed fighters had rigged the building with explosives, an official said.

A powerful explosion killed 30 people, six of them policemen, as Iraqi security forces searched a home of suspected foreign fighters in western Baghdad that was apparently booby-trapped, an interior ministry official and witnesses said on Wednesday.

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The police raided the home in Baghdad's squalid Ghazaliya district late on Tuesday, and were still inside when a massive blast ripped through the house, the interior ministry officer said.

Thirty people died, six of them police, along with 25 wounded, including four of them policemen, while another four police were still missing, the officer said.
Police had surrounded the home thought to harbour "terrorist elements", an interior ministry officer said.

"When the police force stormed the house, a huge explosion destroyed the house and some surrounding homes," he said.

Police believed fighters had rigged the building with explosives, the officer said on condition of anonymity.