Another 305 people were wounded in the grisly attack in Baghdad's Al-Sadriya district, the latest in a rash of insurgent bombings of shopping districts as US troop reinforcements ready a much-heralded security crackdown. The bombing was the worst attack in 2007 and the second biggest since co-ordinated Sadr City car bombings last November killed more than 200 people in north-eastern Baghdad.
The government pointed the finger at militants infiltrating from neighbouring Syria, with which it only restored diplomatic relations late last year. "A suicide truck bomb exploded near the Sadriya market, in central Baghdad on the east bank of the Tigris River.
At least 127 people were killed and 303 wounded," a security source told AFP. An Iraqi bomb expert said the truck was packed with one tonne of explosives. "It was a Mercedes truck and contained one tonne of explosives," Jihad Jadri, bomb squad chief at the interior ministry in Baghdad told state television.
"The suicide bomber blew up the truck in a crowded market." The blast sent a long plume of thick grey smoke into the overcast sky just before dusk, when markets are usually crowded with shoppers out for food ahead of the night-time curfew that comes into force at 9pm (1800 GMT).
An AFP photographer said terrified survivors threw stones at police who had cordoned off the area and prevented ambulances from reaching the scene amid rumours of another bomb in an ambulance. Police transported the victims in all available police vehicles, but one policeman, who was trying to evacuate wounded in his blood-spattered pick-up truck was beaten by shocked survivors. There were chaotic scenes at local hospitals as volunteers rushed in the wounded, while many charred bodies were seen lain out in pick-up trucks and hospital corridors.
The blast also collapsed nearby houses, and many people were reported trapped in the debris. A series of smaller blasts could be heard across the city later. A shocked Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed the latest carnage once again on followers of executed dictator Saddam Hussein.
"The Iraqi people and the world is shocked by this crime which struck the popular market in Sadiriya and resulted in massive casualties," Maliki said in a statement. "The Saddamists have returned to commit a new crime." Maliki said his administration was determined to "put an end to these crimes."
"The forces of terror and evil supported by suspect groups have gathered around the Iraqi people within the country and also outside it," he said. "They have cheapened the blood of Iraqi people by killing innocent victims in markets and universities. But we reassure the population that we will put an end to these crimes."
Prior to Saturday's attack, a twin car bombing on January 22 near the capital's Haraj market killed 88 people, and on Thursday, 73 people were killed in a twin suicide bombing in the mainly Shiite town of Hilla, south of Baghdad. The intensifying bombing campaign is posing a major challenge to Iraqi and US authorities as they fine-tune a make-or-break security plan to stabilise the capital.
The provinces were not spared the wave of violence. Seven car bombs rocked the northern oil city of Kirkuk prompting police to impose a curfew from 4pm (1300 GMT) until 6am (0300 GMT) on Sunday. In one attack, a suicide bomber exploded a car outside the office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of regional president Massud Barzani, killing two people and wounding 17.
Authorities also slapped a curfew on two other northern cities, Mosul and Samarra, following outbreaks of violence there, police said. Near Samarra, six police commandos were killed when gunmen attacked their checkpoint, while clashes between insurgents and security forces were reported from Mosul.
Elsewhere six more people were killed, including three in Naharvan, south of Baghdad. Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh charged that militant infiltrators from neighbouring Syria were behind at least half of the bombings. "What we see (violence) on the streets of Baghdad, 50 percent of it is coming from Syria," Dabbagh said. "I confirm that 50 percent of murders and bombings are by Arab extremists coming from Syria."