Crowds celebrate as Baghdad car bomb kills five Westerners

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A car bomb shattered a convoy of Westerners in Baghdad Monday, killing at least 13 people, including three General Electric workers and two bodyguards. Crowds rejoiced over the attack, dancing around a charred body and shouting "Down with the USA!"

The blast, during the morning rush hour near busy Tahrir Square, was the second vehicle bombing in Baghdad in as many days amid an upsurge of bloodshed in the capital only two weeks before the formal end of the U.S.-led occupation.

Iraq's interior minister said he believed foreigners carried out the attack, and Prime Minister Iyad Allawi accused Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi of trying to disrupt the transfer of sovereignty. Al-Zarqawi, believed to have contacts with al-Qaida, is accused in last month's decapitation of American Nicholas Berg.

The bomb exploded as three SUVs carrying the contractors were passing through the square. The blast destroyed eight vehicles and turned nearby shops and a two-story house to rubble.

Moments after the thunderous blast, which shook the heart of the capital, young men raced into the street, hurling stones at the flaming wreckage, looting personal belongings of the victims and chanting slogans against the occupation.

Iraqi police stood by helplessly -- unable to control the crowd only weeks before they are to assume more security responsibility under the U.S. exit strategy.

GE won't pull out workersAs flames and smoke enveloped the vehicles, youths taunted American troops and threatened Western journalists. American troops beat one man with a stick, but after failing to restrain the crowd, the troops and police withdrew.

Crowds chanted "Down with the USA!" and set fire to an American flag. As the police left, the crowd poured kerosene into one of the vehicles and set it on fire. Heavy black smoke poured from the vehicle. About 20 youths danced around a charred body.

The dead included three employees of Granite Services Inc., a wholly owned, Tampa, Fla.-based subsidiary of General Electric Co., and two security contractors employed by Olive Security of London. The Westerners included one American, two Britons, one Frenchman and one victim of undetermined nationality, officials said.

U.S. officials said 62 people were injured, including 10 foreign contractors. Hospital officials said many of the wounded had lost limbs.

The foreign victims were helping to rebuild power plants, Allawi said.

The attack was the latest in a series directed against Iraq's infrastructure or those seeking to rebuild it after decades of war, international sanctions and Saddam Hussein's tyranny.

GE said Monday it has no plans to pull its workers out of the country.

"We remain committed to the reconstruction of Iraq," said GE spokeswoman Louise Binns.

In other Iraq news:

The United States will hand over Saddam Hussein and all other detainees to Iraq's new government over the next two weeks as sovereignty is restored, the interim prime minister said Monday.

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said the former Iraqi president would stand trial "as soon as possible" but gave no specific timeframe. The detainees and "Saddam as well will be handed to the Iraqi government," he added.

A leader of militants in Iraq has purportedly written to Osama bin Laden saying his fighters are being squeezed by U.S.-led coalition troops, according to a statement posted Monday on Islamic Web sites.

The message is thought to be from Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The statement says the militant movement in Iraq is racing against time to form battalions that can take control of the country "four months before the formation of the promised Iraqi government, hoping to spoil their plan." It appears to refer to the government that would take office after the elections scheduled for January 2005.

Associated Press writers Lourdes Navarro and Fisnik Abrashi contributed to this report.