Market truck bomb kills at least 60 in Baghdad's Sadr City

A refrigerator truck packed with explosives blew up inside Jamila market at around 6am, police say

BAGHDAD: At least 60 people were killed and 200 wounded in a bomb attack on Thursday at a market in Baghdad's Sadr City district, police and medical sources said, in one of the largest attacks on the capital since Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi took office a year ago.

The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the blast who said in an online statement that it carried out the "blessed operation" in Sadr City, which devastated a major wholesale vegetable market.

"A refrigerator truck packed with explosives blew up inside Jamila market at around 6 am," said police office Muhsin al-Saedi. "Many people were killed and body parts were thrown on top of nearby buildings."

A Reuters witness at the site saw fruit and vegetables mixed with blood and body remains littering the blast crater. The market, in a northeastern suburb, is one of the largest wholesale food markets in the capital.

Abadi took office last summer following the army's collapse in IS's takeover of the northern city of Mosul, which left the Baghdad government dependent on the Shia militias to defend the capital and recapture lost ground.

Security forces and militia groups are currently focused on routing the insurgents from the Anbar, the sprawling Sunni heartland in western Iraq.