The 2008 Balad bombing occurred on February 10, 2008 when a car bomb detonated in a market in Balad, Iraq, at a strategic Iraqi Army checkpoint.^[1] It killed at least 25 and injuring 40 more, though some estimates place the death toll at 33.^[1] Some buildings have collapsed and several people have been reported missing, adding to the possible death toll.^[1]

Among the dead are a driver and Iraqi journalist Alaa Abdulkareem Fartusi, a cameraman for Al-Forat, a Shiite-backed satellite news station.^[2] Fartusi marks the first journalist killed in Iraq in 2008.^[2] A female reporter was injured in the blast and remains in critical condition.^[2]

The bombing was on the same day that U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Baghdad unannounced to meet Iraqi government leaders and U.S. commanders, including General David Petraeus.^[1][3]

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