The truck bombing destroyed 100 houses and many shops in the neighborhood, which is a poor district with ramshackle construction, officials said.
The 1993 truck bombing of the trade center by Islamic militants killed 6 people and injured 1,000.
It could not be determined whether the reference was to the three truck bombings.
One was the truck bombing of Paradise Hotel, in which 15 were killed.
And then there were the truck bombings in downtown Caligo.
Since the tunnel would, it is widely agreed, have reduced the threat of a truck bombing, did the decision against it increase the security risks?
Since Sept. 11, the authorities have been cracking down on this kind of fraud in an attempt to prevent truck bombings.
On Feb. 3, a truck bombing killed at least 137 people, wounded 305 and obliterated part of the market.
The decision came a month after the truck bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people.
A. A hospital the Iraqis had taken over was the subject of a truck bombing.