A suicide truck bomb blamed on insurgents exploded Wednesday outside the Interior Ministry in the Kurdish city of Irbil, killing at least 19 people and wounding 80, security and hospital officials said. Kurdish television showed footage of the badly damaged Interior Ministry building. Rubble lay in piles and long metal beams were twisted. Rescue workers reached into the wreckage to pull out one of the victims of the blast. Windows were blown out down the street and wreckage was scattered nearly 100 meters away. The blast also damaged the nearby security headquarters. Zariyan Othman, the Kurdish health minister, said 19 were killed and 80 were wounded, including five who were in serious condition. Hamza Ahmed, a spokesman for the Irbil governor's office, said the dead and wounded included police and civilians.
