A massive bomb tore through a crowd gathered near a bus station in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 22 people and wounding 54, security officials said.
"The toll in the Kadhimiyah explosion has risen to 22 killed and 54 injured," army spokesman Major General Qassim Atta told AFP.
He said the explosion occurred in parking lot used by commuters near a key city bus terminal in the Shiite neighborhood of Kadhimiyah, northwest Baghdad.
Initial Iraqi military reports said that the source of the explosion was car bomb. However, a statement from a US military identified the bomb as an improvised explosive device (IED).
An AFP photographer at the scene said the charred remains of one vehicle pointed to car bomb. The force of the explosion was so powerful that body parts had been scattered across houses and vehicles surrounding the site.
The blast, which occurred around midday, echoed for kilometers (miles) across the embattled Iraqi capital.
Saturday's bombing was the deadliest in the Iraqi capital since November 10, when at least 28 people were killed, including women and schoolgirls, and dozens wounded in a triple bombing in a market.
The attackers in the November violence detonated a car bomb in the Sunni district of Adhamiyah, then minutes later a suicide bomber ran into the resulting melee and blew himself up.
On Thursday, one Iraqi was killed and 14 others injured, including three policemen, in a bombing attack in Kadhimiyah, scene of some of deadliest killings in the Iraqi capital since the invasion.
PHOTO CAPTION
An Iraqi inspects the site of a car bomb attack in the Kadhimiyah neighborhood of Baghdad.
Reuters