Baghdad: Three car bombs exploded in quick succession in the market district of a southern Iraqi city today, killing at least 41 people and injuring 150 in an oil-rich Shiite region that has largely escaped sectarian bloodshed, authorities said. It was the country s deadliest bombing in four months.

The police chief in Amarah was fired after the coordinated explosions, and Iraqi soldiers deployed on the streets. Hospital were overwhelmed with the casualties, which mounted as bodies were pulled from the rubble, according to a provincial spokesman.

Violence has declined dramatically in the capital and elsewhere in Iraq in recent months, and insurgents driven out of Baghdad by the crackdown there have sought to gain a foothold in outlying regions. The Shiite area around Amarah, controlled by British forces until April, has suffered under violent power struggles between rival militias, but has had almost no al-Qaida presence.

The explosions in Amarah were about five minutes apart, beginning with a small blast at the entrance to the market, said Mohammed Saleh, a provincial council spokesman, elaborating on earlier accounts by police and an intelligence official.

Saleh said bystanders gathered to look at the aftermath of that blast, which wounded just a few people, when a second car bomb exploded. The third car blew up nearby as the crowd began to flee, he said. Most Baghdad markets, which have been hit by a succession of deadly bombings in recent years, are surrounded by blast walls and shoppers are searched upon entering.

Source : PTI