Baghdad bomb kills 35 queuing for cooking fuel

A bomb blew up a cooking fuel tanker in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighbourhood today, killing at least 35 people, police said.

Another 36 people were wounded by the 10am (7am Irish time) blast in the sprawling Shiite slum. People frantically carried survivors from the narrow muddy street to ambulances, and hauled away bodies in blankets.

Dhiyaa Ali a 24 year-old college student, said he heard the explosion from his nearby home and ran to the street to help people. He said bodies and blood were everywhere.

“I went into the flames just to get anyone left out of the fire,” he said. “I saw a mother holding her child, both of them burned and dead.”

The bomb was hidden in a barrel near the tanker, where scores of people were waiting to buy fuel, said police Colonel Saad Abdul-Sada.

A crowd of people was gathered behind the truck, with a long line down the street when the bomb exploded, Abdul-Sada said. There were more people on hand than usual as families sought to stock up on fuel for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, he said.

In the aftermath of the blast, sandals of all sizes littered the ground, scattered around a large pool of water mixed with blood.

“I swear to Allah that this is a revenge against Sadr City,” a young man yelled, raising his hands in the air. “Where is (Prime Minister Nouri) Maliki’s government?”

Seventeen women were among the dead, Abdul-Sada said.

Sadr City is home to more than two million people and a stronghold of the Mahdi army – a Shiite militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.