Up to 55 people were killed in an attack around a crowded market in a violent town just outside Baghdad today, police and Interior Ministry sources said.
There were conflicting accounts from officials about the events. In Baghdad, police and ministry sources said a car bomb devastated the market in Mahmudiya, just south of the city.
But in the town itself, a police commander said a series of explosions were mortars falling on the town, followed by a rampage by gunmen through the market - a rare tactic in Iraq against civilian targets.
Colonel Iyad Mohammed of the Mahmudiya police said 55 people were killed and 58 wounded. The sources in Baghdad had earlier put the toll at 42 dead and 33 wounded.
Mahmudiya is part of a small area dubbed the "triangle of death" over the past three years because of the number of attacks on US forces and among the population.
Six Americans have been charged over the alleged rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in Mahmudiya in March and the killing of her parents and 6-year-old sister in their home.
Nearby, three US troops from the same unit were killed in an attack on an isolated checkpoint last month. Two of them were abducted before being killed. An al-Qaeda-led group has claimed the attack was in revenge for the rape and murders.