Click to play videoBaghdad (Iraq): A suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden truck in a crowded Baghdad market on Saturday, killing at least 102 people and wounding 215 others, police said.
The blast, which destroyed stores and automobiles, erupted in Sedriya, a mixed neighborhood of Sunni Arabs, Shiites and Kurds.
Many victims were still trapped under the rubble. The blast marked the worst attack in Iraq since November 23, when Shiites were targeted by coordinated car bomb attacks in Sadr City. At least 200 civilians were killed then.
In another car bombing in the Baghdad suburb of Mahmoudiya, 20 miles (30 kilometers) south of the capital, one person was killed and six others were wounded when a blast erupted in a commercial district, a Baghdad police official said.
Back in Baghdad, a passenger was killed and four others were wounded when their minibus struck a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad's Beirut Square, the Baghdad police said. The minibus was headed to Sadr City.
In the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, nine blasts within two hours left at least two people dead and 20 wounded, a Kirkuk deputy police chief said.
Seven of the blasts came from car bombs, while the others were roadside explosives. One of the car bombs detonated at the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
Police have imposed a curfew in the city and closed all roads into the community. The curfew is expected to be lifted at 0600 hours on Sunday.
Kirkuk is an oil-rich city located in Tameem province. The diverse city — populated by Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens as well as Shiites, Sunnis, and Christians — is rife with ethnic tension.
More violence was reported Saturday in Samarra, where insurgents last February set off bombs at a sacred Shiite mosque, igniting a wave of sectarian violence.
On Saturday, four police officers were killed when at least 20 gunmen in six vehicles attacked a national police checkpoint, prompting authorities to ban vehicles in the city, Samarra police said. Three officers were wounded in the attack.
The gunmen also wounded three police officers and set off a car bomb in northern Samarra that damaged a police headquarters, police said.
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