Iraq officials: Huge truck bomb in Baghdad market kills 54

Civilians, seen through wreckage, inspect the aftermath of a car bomb explosion in the Shiite predominant district of Sadr city, Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015. An Iraqi police official said a minibus loaded with explosives detonated on a crowded street in Baghdad, killing several people on Wednesday. (Photo by Karim Kadim/AP)

BAGHDAD  — A massive truck bomb ripped through a popular Baghdad food market in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in the early morning hours on Thursday, killing at least 54 people, police officials said.

The truck detonated in the Jameela market in the Iraqi capital’s crowded Sadr City neighborhood shortly after dawn, according to two local police officers. They say at least 86 people were wounded in the attack.

“On Thursdays the market is especially crowded because people come from the other provinces to stock up on food for the weekend,” one of the officers said.

Residents of the Shiite community

rushed to the market to help the victims, carrying corpses in garbage bags and sending the wounded to local hospitals in ambulances or in personal cars. Three hospital officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion, but Islamic State militants commonly target military checkpoints or predominantly Shiite neighborhoods such as Sadr City, with the goal of sending a message to the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad.

While near-daily attacks are common in the capital, death tolls have rarely reached this level for a single attack since the height of the country’s brutal sectarian bloodletting in 2006 and 2007.

The Sunni militant group currently holds territory in about a third of Iraq. They view Shiite Muslims, as well as other religious minorities, as apostates. When they launched their major onslaught across northern Iraq last year, they vowed to continue on to Baghdad. But a mobilization of volunteer Shiite fighters deterred any significant attacks on the capital.