The 2008 Balad bombing occurred on February 10, 2008 when a car bomb detonated in a market in Balad, Iraq

Balad, Iraq

Balad is a city north of Baghdad in the Salah ad Din Governorate Iraq. It is located within the borders of the so-called Sunni Triangle; however, Balad is a primarily Shiite town of approximately 100,000...

, at a strategic Iraqi Army checkpoint. It killed at least 25 and injuring 40 more, though some estimates place the death toll at 33. Some buildings have collapsed and several people have been reported missing, adding to the possible death toll.

Among the dead are a driver and Iraqi journalist Alaa Abdulkareem Fartusi

Alaa Abdulkareem Fartusi

Alaa Abdulkareem Fartusi was an Iraqi journalist for al-Furat, a Shiite-backed satellite news station.-Career:Fartusi worked as a camera man for al-Furat for two years prior to his death in 2008....

, a cameraman for Al-Forat, a Shiite-backed satellite news station. Fartusi marks the first journalist killed in Iraq in 2008. A female reporter was injured in the blast and remains in critical condition.

The bombing was on the same day that U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates

Robert Gates

Dr. Robert Michael Gates is a retired civil servant and university president who served as the 22nd United States Secretary of Defense from 2006 to 2011. Prior to this, Gates served for 26 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, and under President George H. W....

 arrived in Baghdad unannounced to meet Iraqi government leaders and U.S. commanders, including General David Petraeus

David Petraeus

David Howell Petraeus is the current Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, sworn in on September 6, 2011. Prior to his assuming the directorship of the CIA, Petraeus was a four-star general serving over 37 years in the United States Army. His last assignments in the Army were as commander...

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This is the second bomb attack on Balad. The first was on September 29, 2005 when 95 people were killed.