Explosion in Baghdad killes 23

A minibus, packed explosives blew up Tuesday afternoon in a busy section of central Baghdad. 23 people were killed and 68 injured, police said.

The attack in Tayaran Square occurred about 1 p.m. in an area filled with bus stops and shops, police said.

Cars were riddled with shrapnel, pushcarts flipped upside down and smoke rose into the sky, witnesses said. Firefighters rushed to the scene and rescuers tried to pull the wounded out of cars, they said.

Yousef Qasim, 37, was working in his clothing shop 200 meters away when the blast tore through a line of buses waiting at the square, he said.

"I rushed there to see about four or five burning bodies," he said. "I saw flesh on the ground and pools of blood."