Suicide Bomber Targets Iraqi Kids

(CBS/AP)  A suicide car bomb exploded next to U.S. troops handing out candy and toys, killing 18 children and teenagers Wednesday. Parents heard the shattering explosion and raced out to the discover the worst — children's mangled, bloodied bodies strewn on the street.

Up to 27 people were killed by the blast in the Shiite Muslim neighborhood, including an American soldier. At least 70 people were injured, a newborn and three U.S. soldiers among them.

Children's slippers lay piled near the blast crater not far from a crumbled child's bicycle as blood pooled in the street.

Twelve of the dead were 13 or younger and six were between 14 and 17, said police Lt. Mohammed Jassim Jabr. Among the wounded was 4-day-old Miriam Jabber, cut slightly by flying glass and debris.

"There were some American troops blocking the highway when a U.S. Humvee came near a gathering of children," said Karim Shukir, 42. The troops began handing out candy and smiley-face key chains.

"Suddenly, a speeding car bomb...struck both the Humvee and the children," Shukir said.

In other developments:

Coalition forces in Baghdad have captured Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's top lieutenant in Baghdad, Abu Abd al-Aziz, Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday on "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer."

Gunmen killed an Iraqi soldier Wednesday while he was driving his car in western Baghdad, police said.

The Egyptian government has vowed to avenge the apparent slaying of its top envoy in Iraq as it tries to fend off sharp criticism at home and accusations it didn't do enough to save the diplomat who was killed by al Qaeda-linked militants. Egypt's top pro-government newspapers Tuesday carried banner headlines quoting President Hosni Mubarak saying, "Egypt does not forget its sons," and promising to take care of the family of Ihab al-Sherif. They showed prominent photos of the foreign minister shaking hands with al-Sherif's wife, wearing a white veil and black dress.

The slaughter of so many Shiite children is likely to raise tensions further between the majority Shiites — who dominate the government — and the minority Sunni Arabs, the foundation of the insurgency.

For a time, Iraqi parents kept their children away from American troops. But, as CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier reports, lately, it seemed the kids had come back. The troops took that as a positive sign that the community was starting to trust them.

As Dozier reports, that may be exactly why the patrol was hit: a brutal, bloody message that militants will strike anyone, even a child, who mixes with the enemy.

At Kindi hospital, where many victims were taken, a distraught mother swathed in black sat cross-legged outside the operating room. "May God curse the mujahedeen and their leader," she cried, referring to the insurgents as she pounded her head with her fists in grief.

"The car bomber made a deliberate decision to attack one of our vehicles as the soldiers were engaged in a peaceful operation with Iraqi citizens," said Maj. Russ Goemaere, a Task Force Baghdad spokesman.

"The terrorist undoubtedly saw the children," Goemaere said, calling the attack "absolutely abhorrent."

After the bombing, charred remains of an engine block wrapped in barbed wire sat on the road. U.S. and Iraqi troops broadcast messages by loudspeakers in Arabic, warning civilians not to approach military vehicles.

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