Baghdad: A suicide car bomb blast claimed by Islamic State killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 50 others at a vegetable market in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, police and medical sources said.
"A soldier at the gate of Jamila market opened fire on a suicide car bomb after noticing a suspect vehicle but the terrorist blew up his car," interior minister spokesman Saad Maan said.
The explosion hit the mainly Shi`ite district of Jamila, the sources told media.
A police colonel and a hospital official said at least 13 people were killed and more than 50 were wounded. Maan said the soldier who opened fire on the attacker was among the wounded.
Jamila is the main wholesale vegetable market in Baghdad and lies in Sadr City, a vast, mostly Shiite, neighbourhood in the northeast of the capital which has been repeatedly targeted.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but all such recent bombings have been claimed by the Sunni extremists of the Islamic State group.
The most recent major attack claimed by IS was on January 2 - also in Sadr City - when a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle packed with explosives among a crowd of day labourers waiting for work, killing 35 people.
