Baghdad, February 3
A suicide bomber blew up his truck near a central Baghdad market today, killing at least 102 people, as shoppers were buying household items ahead of the night-time curfew.
Another 215 people were wounded in the gruesome attack in Baghdad's Al-Sadriya district, security and medical sources said.
The bombing was the worst attack this year and the second biggest after the Sadr City car bombings last November, which killed more than 200 people.
"A suicide truck bomb exploded near the Sadriya market in central Baghdad on the east bank of the Tigris river. At least 102 people were killed and 215 wounded," a security source said.
The blast sent a long plume of thick grey smoke into the overcast sky just before dusk, when markets are usually crowded with shoppers out for food ahead of the night-time curfew.
The Sadriya bomb came just hours after insurgents unleashed a series of other car bombs and shootings across the strife-torn country.
— AFP
