Powerful Explosion in Baghdad

The NYT reports, "The violence continued in Iraq as a bomb exploded by a highway here in the capital on Friday night, with a boom that echoed through the city and sent a plume of white smoke hundreds of feet in night sky. The blast, just before 9 p.m., hurt no one but set nerves on edge in a city that has been bracing for another major attack against U.S. soldiers — or anyone perceived to be cooperating with their occupation of Iraq . . . The explosion was powerful enough to lift a passing taxi — carrying the driver, his wife and six children — off the pavement, the driver, Mohammad Adnan, said. In addition to smashing the taxi’s windshield, the blast ripped clean about 100 feet of metal guardrail. There did not appear to be any U.S. troops nearby."