Bomb attack on Iraq market kills 42

MAHMUDIYA, Iraq - Over 40 people were killed in a car bomb attack and shooting at a crowded market in a violent town just outside Baghdad today, police said.

Witnesses in the small town of Mahmudiya, south of the capital, said they heard several explosions and heavy gunfire.

Some police sources said their forces engaged attackers in a fierce firefight after the explosion. Others said the gunfire was largely intended to disperse crowds.

Police sources said at least 42 people were killed and 33 wounded in the market violence.

Both Sunni insurgents like al Qaeda and Shi'ite militias have been active in the area, where the population is mixed between the two Muslim sects whose violent differences have taken Iraq to the brink of civil war.

The attack came on the anniversary of the 1968 coup d'etat that brought Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated Baath party to power.

Mahmudiya is part of a small area dubbed the 'triangle of death' over the past three years because of the number of attacks on US forces and among the population.

Six Americans have been charged over the alleged rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in Mahmudiya in March and the killing of her parents and 6-year-old sister in their home.

Nearby, three US troops from the same unit were killed in an attack on an isolated checkpoint last month. Two of them were abducted before being killed. An al Qaeda-led group has claimed the attack was in revenge for the rape and murders.

- REUTERS