Eight killed in Baghdad market bomb blast

A bomb attack on a vegetable market in a predominantly Shiite neighbourhood in south-eastern Baghdad today killed at least eight people and wounded 14.

The bomb hit the Zafaraniyah neighbourhood during the busy morning shopping period. Two women and a child were among the dead; five of the injured were women, said police Lt. Bilal Ali Majid.

Police evacuated the market after finding a second bomb, which they were working to disarm.

Hundreds of Iraqis have died since the February 22 bombing of the golden dome atop the Askariya shrine, an important Shiite Muslim holy place in Samarra.

The bombing set in motion a series of sectarian reprisal attacks that threaten to push Iraq into civil war.