A powerful car bomb exploded in a crowded market area of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 51 people and wounding 75, in the biggest attack in the Iraqi capital in months.The bomb blew up near the main market in the predominantly Shi'ite neighborhood of al-Hurriya in northwestern Baghdad, police said. It left a heap of smoking, mangled wreckage. Before the blast, the market would have been packed with late-afternoon shoppers buying food before returning home.
The blast set fire to about 20 shops and leveled a multi-storey building, a security source said. Many vehicles were damaged by the blast, which cut off electricity to the area. Ambulances raced back and forth taking casualties to nearby hospitals.