(whitehouse.com) - A suicide bomber attacked a crowd of people waiting outside a heavily guarded court building in Baghdad on Thursday, killing 10 Iraqis and wounding dozens, police said.
All the casualties were civilians except two policemen who were wounded, police added.
Police initially said the attack was caused by a car bomb targeting a three-car police convoy in the area, but later said it was caused by a man with explosives hidden beneath his clothing.
The man set them off in a crowd of police officers and civilians waiting outside the civil court, said police Lt. Thair Mahmoud. The officers were guarding the building and many of the civilians were meeting outside with paralegals to write petitions they planned to submit in court.
The blast occurred in a mixed Sunni-Shiite area of eastern Baghdad, said. It was powerful enough to smash the windows of some nearby shops. Firefighters rushed to the scene and used hoses to clean blood stains from the sidewalk and street outside the court.