Iraqi officials say a car bomb has killed 51 people and wounded 75 others at a market in a mainly Shi'ite area of Baghdad.
Tuesday's bombing in the Hurriyah district of western Baghdad was the deadliest in the Iraqi capital in more than three months.
The
car bomb triggered a fire that engulfed a multi-story building
containing shops and apartments. Many of the victims were trapped in
that building.
Baghdad had been relatively calm since May 11,
when U.S. and Iraqi forces began observing a truce with Shi'ite
militants that ended weeks of fighting.
In another attack
Tuesday, an Iraqi television news reporter, Muhieddin Abdul-Hamid was
shot dead near his home in the northern city of Mosul.
Also,
Iraq's parliament says it will start holding its sessions outside the
U.S.-protected Green Zone in Baghdad, starting September first. The
planned move is in response to what U.S. and Iraqi officials say are
general improvements in security.
Deputy speaker Khalid
al-Attiyah says the parliament will return to the National Assembly
building, where lawmakers met during Saddam Hussein's rule.
Elsewhere,
Iraqi officials say insurgents in the southern province of Maysan have
handed over large numbers of weapons ahead of a crackdown by Iraqi
security forces.
Iraq's government has ordered insurgents in
Maysan to surrender their weapons by Thursday, when Iraqi forces are
expected to start operations to demilitarize the province.
In
other developments, the U.S. military says it killed four al-Qaida
militants Tuesday in a raid on a suspected bombing cell in Mosul.
Also
Tuesday, a car bomb exploded outside a police headquarters in the town
of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, killing one policeman and wounding 19
other people.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.