A suicide bomber has detonated a car near police recruits and a crowded market south of Baghdad, killing 115 people and wounding 148 in the single bloodiest attack in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
…….Many of those killed were across the road, and were caught in the blast as they shopped at stalls in the morning sunshine.
Reuters television footage showed a pile of bloodied bodies outside the building. Smoke rose from the wreckage of burnt-out market stalls as bystanders loaded mangled corpses on to rickety wooden carts, usually used to carry fruit and vegetables.
Others, their limbs ripped to shreds, were piled into the back of pick-up trucks. Nearby buildings were pockmarked by shrapnel. People wept, clutched their heads in despair and shouted “God is greatest” as rescuers led the injured away.
“The suicide bomber came from a nearby alleyway,” said Zeyd Shamran, who said he saw the blast. “It was a grey Mitsubishi. There were two people in it and when it stopped one man got out, shook hands and kissed the other man.”
Moments later the car exploded, he said.