Baghdad car bomb kills 25, wounds 115

By Paul Tait

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A parked car bomb killed 25 people and wounded 115 when it exploded near an intersection in central Baghdad on Thursday and police said the toll could rise as many bodies were believed still buried under rubble.

Bodies lay strewn around the street after the blast, which smashed three buildings into piles of masonry and concrete. It was at least the fourth to hit the predominantly Shi'ite district of Karrada this week.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have stepped up security operations in Baghdad since mid-February in an attempt to stem bombings, many of them blamed on al Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni Islamist group that U.S. officials say is trying to spark a full-scale civil war.

But large-scale bombings continue to plague the capital.

U.S. President George W. Bush, under mounting pressure from opposition Democrats to set a timetable for withdrawing American troops, has sent 28,000 more soldiers to Iraq this year, bringing the total force to about 157,000.

While the build-up only peaked in June, the Pentagon is making contingency plans for a withdrawal, according to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

In a letter delivered on Tuesday to Senator Hillary Clinton, a New York Democrat and presidential candidate who tangled with the Pentagon to learn whether such plans exist, Gates said he was actively involved in drafting them.

"You may rest assured that such planning is indeed taking place with my active involvement as well as that of senior military and civilian officials and our commanders in the field," Gates said in the letter obtained by Reuters.