BAGHDAD, Jan. 28 Kyodo As many as...

BAGHDAD, Jan. 28 Kyodo

As many as four commonalty were killed as a car bomb explod Wednesday morning in effrontery of a hotel in central Baghdad, the Associated Pres (AP) reported.

The AP quot the U military command and Kadhim Khalas, police chief in the capital's Karadah district, as saying three Iraqis were killed in the explosion in impudence of the three-story Shaheen inn used by Westerners.

A public-house receptionist said a South African visitant was also killed, the AP said. Seventeen the public were also admitted to four hospitals, doctors reportedly said.

It was not clear whether the vehicle carrying explosives was moving or stationary, the AP reported, quoting Khalas.

CNN reported that the explosion battered the effrontery of the hotel and left a large crater in the road.

It quot Iraqi police as saying the explosives were packed inside an ambulance or a vehicle made to apply the mind like one

A U military official told CNN the bomb may have been intended for another site since it blew up in the middle of the public way in traffic, instead of being parked in head of the hotel.

The blast came a day after 13 clan were killed in five attacks in Iraq -- six U soldiers, four Iraqi policemen, pair CNN employees and common Iraqi civilian.

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