A bomb claimed by a Sunni Arab extremist group killed at least 37 Shiites in Baghdad on Saturday as they stocked up on fuel for Ramadan, just days after the U.S. military warned that sectarian bloodshed could worsen during the Islamic holy month. The group said it carried out the bombing to avenge a Friday attack by a suspected Shiite death squad on Sunni Arab homes and mosques that killed four people in a mixed Baghdad neighborhood. The Sunni extremist group Jamaat Jund al-Sahaba — Soldiers of the Prophet's Companions — claimed responsibility for the bomb attack on Shiites in Sadr City, a sprawling slum that is home to more than 2 million people and a stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Police said the bomb went off as people crowded behind a kerosene truck to buy fuel for Ramadan, during which people gather just after sunset for a communal meal to break a daylong abstention from food and water.
Dhiyaa Ali, a 24-year-old college student, said he heard the explosion from his nearby home and ran to the street to help people. He said bodies and blood were everywhere. "I went into the flames just to get anyone left out of the fire," he told The Associated Press. "I saw a mother holding her child, both of them burned and dead."