Up to eight killed in Baghdad blast

The New Year Eve car bomb attack on a Baghdad restaurant killed up to eight people and wounded more than 30, US military investigators said yesterday as they hunted for clues among the rubble.

The bomb devastated the upmarket Nabil restaurant, popular with foreigners and wealthy Iraqis, around two and a half hours before midnight, scattering debris and wrecked cars across the street outside and sparking a blaze.

"Right now the death toll we believe is six to eight with at least 30 walking wounded who were treated at local hospitals," Lieutenant Colonel Peter Jones, the senior US officer at the scene, told Reuters outside the ruined building.

The dead were all Iraqis and the wounded included three foreign journalists with the Los Angeles Times.

Jones said the blast was caused by a car bomb parked next to the restaurant.

Yesterday, owners of many upscale Baghdad restaurants said they were considering stopping the sale of wine and liquor, hoping this would reduce the number of foreigners coming in and avoid attracting the attention of the guerillas.

Although overwhelmingly Muslim, there are only minimal restrictions on the sale and consumption of liquor in Iraq.

In Washington, officials said they would replace almost all the troops in Iraq over the next five months, one of the most extensive logistical exercises the Pentagon has undertaken.

A total of 123,000 US troops will be pulled out of Iraq and replaced with about 110,000 fresh soldiers and Marines.