BAGHDAD (AP) — A car bomb tore through a crowded livestock market south of Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 13 people in a mainly Shiite area that the U.S. military has described as one of the safest in Iraq. The blast, which wounded 57 others, struck the market at the height of trading, scattering animal carcasses and human remains across the dirt."We had just started to have our breakfast in a tea shop inside the livestock market when we saw huge flames rising, and people started to run," Hussein Abdul-Kadir said. "We saw several bodies and carcasses, some burned and on the ground."
The attack — on the outskirts of Hillah, a city 60 miles south of Baghdad — was Iraq's deadliest in three weeks. The previous attack, on Feb. 13, took place just 20 miles to the north in the town of Musayyib, where a female suicide bomber killed 40 Shiite pilgrims. Both bombings occurred in Babil province. Hillah lies in Babil's mainly Shiite south. Musayyib is farther north where the population reflects a volatile mix of Sunnis and Shiites.