Bombing at market kills 25 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD -- A car bomb ripped through a crowded market in a Shi'ite-dominated neighborhood yesterday, killing 25 people and injuring 60, in another blow to US and Iraqi efforts to quash sectarian bloodshed in the Iraqi capital.

The victims were among 75 people reported slain yesterday, including 33 unidentified bodies recovered in Baghdad who were apparent victims of sectarian death squads.

The high toll underscored the challenges facing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki a year after he took office promising to unite Iraqis across ethnic and religious divides, even as pressure mounts in the United States for a speedy exit of American troops from the conflict.

"Our fight against terror is open and long," Maliki said in an anniversary address on state television. "No one believes this battle will end today or tomorrow."

Thousands of additional US and Iraqi troops have deployed in the capital since mid-February in an attempt to clear out militants and provide breathing room for Iraq's leaders to resolve their political divisions.

But the spectacular bombings that are the signature of Sunni insurgents have persisted, prompting an apparent resurgence of militia activity in some areas -- including Amil, the site of yesterday's deadly market attack.

Residents said militiamen were again forcing Sunni residents out of the southwestern neighborhood. Thirteen of the bullet-riddled bodies recovered yesterday were found there, police said.

Witnesses said the bomber concealed his explosives in a truck carrying food and detonated them when he was stopped at a checkpoint. Police, however, said the device was planted in a parked car.

Amir Sabh rushed to his store to inspect the damage. The blast crumbled at least four buildings and flattened the car that a friend of his was driving.

"There was no trace of him," he said. The man's wife was hysterical, searching for any remains around the vehicle, which Sabh said looked like a "crushed can."

"A Dracula horror movie couldn't be scarier," he said.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, four students were killed and 25 were injured when mortar rounds slammed a Sunni neighborhood.

A couple and their four children, the youngest a 1-year-old, were killed by gunmen in army uniforms at what police said was a fake security checkpoint nearby Baqubah, a strife-torn city 35 miles northeast of the capital .