Naseer Al-Nahr, Arab News

BAGHDAD, 15 June 2004 — A car bomb tore through a convoy yesterday in central Baghdad, killing at least 16 people, including five foreign contractors.

The dead included three employees of Granite Services Inc., a wholly owned, Tampa, Florida-based subsidiary of General Electric, and two security contractors, said GE spokeswoman Louise Binns in Brussels.

The US military said the dead included two Britons, one Frenchman, one American and a foreigner of undetermined nationality. More than 60 people, including 10 foreign contractors, were injured, the military said.

Passions boiled over as a crowd of youths taunted American troops and Western journalists who rushed to the scene near Tahrir Square. American troops beat one man with a stick, but after failing to restrain the crowd, the troops and police withdrew.

One civilian bystander — missing a finger from the bomb — ran up to Western reporters and shouted at them to leave.

The blast, which destroyed eight vehicles and turned nearby shops and a two-story house to rubble, is the second bombing in as many days and comes nearly two weeks before the formal end of the US-led occupation.

“Nothing is more important than the safety of our employees and those supporting our efforts,” Binns said in a statement. “We have taken extraordinary measures to keep them safe and we will continue to work with the Coalition Provisional Authority and Iraqi authorities to protect our people. We remain committed to the reconstruction of Iraq.”

Some of the victims were in shops devastated by the blast. One elderly Iraqi man, still wearing blood-soaked night clothes, was carried from the destruction.

Frantic Iraqis scooped up the wounded and loaded them into private cars to be taken to hospitals. The bomb went off as three SUVs carrying the contractors were passing through the square. Five other vehicles were also destroyed. Scattered around one of the damaged SUVs were manuals that appeared to be for energy turbines, including one titled, “GE Energy Products, Europe.”

The attack unleashed fresh anger at the United States, with crowds chanting “Down with the USA!” and burning an American flag.

“We deplore this terrorist act and vow to bring these criminals to justice as soon as possible,” Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said.

There have been 17 car bombings and a near-daily string of other attacks in Iraq this month. On Sunday, 12 people were killed by a car bomb near a US garrison in Baghdad, and gunmen assassinated another member of the new Iraqi government, an Education Ministry official.

Meanwhile, the US military freed more prisoners from Abu Ghraib jail, at the heart of a scandal over prisoner abuse by US forces, under a program to cut numbers there by June 30.

In London, British Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said four British soldiers would face courts-martial on charges of abusing prisoners in Iraq.

Goldsmith said the charges include allegations of “assault, indecent assault which apparently involves making the victims engage in sexual activity between themselves, and a military charge of prejudicing good order and military discipline.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross said ousted dictator Saddam Hussein must be freed or charged before the handover of power on June 30. An ICRC spokeswoman said holding Saddam without charge after the transfer of power would be against international humanitarian law.

— Additional input from agencies