A minibus packed with explosives blew up near a police station and a market north of Baghdad today, killing more than 70 and wounding 30 in the worst attack since the handover of power one month ago. Over 100 people have been killed in the past 24 hours as attempts to bring democracy to the gulf state are undermined by militants.
The powerful suicide bomb left a sea of destruction, obliterating market stalls and destroying several buildings. It raises fears of a fresh insurgent campaign just days before Iraq holds a major political conference to plot its future.
It was the worst death toll from a single bomb attack in Iraq since a blast outside a mosque in the holy city of Najaf last August killed more than 80 people.
Reuters Television pictures showed at least a dozen bodies scattered across a street, some of them still on fire.
A Health Ministry official said more than 70 were killed and 30 wounded in the blast shortly after 6am (Irish Time) in Baquba, an often violent town 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad. She said the toll was expected to rise further.
Twenty-one people travelling in a minibus alongside the one that detonated were killed, an Interior Ministry source said.
In early morning clashes southeast of Baghdad, 35 insurgents and seven Iraqi soldiers were killed and ten soldiers from the Iraqi security forces were wounded in the joint operation with US Army special forces and Ukrainian troops in the city of Suwariyah.
There no casualties among multi-national forces. Around 40 insurgents were captured in the incident, the Polish military say.
It was the deadliest day in Iraq since June 24th, when more than 100 people were killed in a string of bomb blasts, suicide attacks and armed assaults across the country.
The blast also came a month to the day after the interim government took back sovereignty, and three days before a major political conference to chart Iraq's future.
There were several other incidents across the country today, creating the impression of a co-ordinated campaign.
A mortar or rocket struck a busy street in Baghdad, killing one person and wounding five, witnesses said. South of Baghdad, seven members of Iraq's security forces, backed by US and Ukrainian troops, died in a gunbattle in which 35 insurgents were killed, Poland's defence ministry said.
No US or Ukrainian forces were wounded or killed. As well as tearing through scores of civilians as they shopped at the market, the Baquba bomb struck a group of men lining up at a nearby recruiting office for the Iraqi police.
"We had gathered them at one place to register their names. There was a queue, when suddenly this vehicle appeared and exploded," said a police officer at the scene.
Agencies