U.S. forces on Wednesday blamed a rogue Shi'ite militia group seeking to stir up sectarian violence for a devastating truck bombing that killed 63 people in Baghdad. The U.S. military said intelligence information showed Tuesday's attack in a predominantly Shi'ite district, the deadliest in the Iraqi capital in more than three months, was carried out by a 'special groups cell'.That is military jargon for rogue elements of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army. The U.S. military says the special groups receive weapons, training and funding from neighboring Iran, a charge Tehran denies.
Iraqi police said another 75 people were wounded in the bombing in a crowded market area of northwestern Baghdad. Four children and five women were among the dead. The blast in the al-Hurriya neighborhood set three buildings ablaze and destroyed a marketplace, police said.
The U.S. military said it believed the bombers used a truck packed with 200 to 300 lbs (90 to 135 kg) of explosives.
The attack, just weeks after the U.S. military announced violence in Iraq had dropped to a four-year low, shattered weeks of relative calm in the Iraqi capital. Trucks and diggers were busy on Wednesday removing rubble from the bomb site. Smoke hung in the air.