At least 18 killed in Baghdad explosion: Source

Iraqi security forces and civilians inspect the site of the bomb explosion in Sadr City district of Baghdad, Iraq, on June 6, 2018. PHOTO: REUTERS
People at the site of a car bomb attack in Sadr City district of Baghdad, Iraq, on June 6, 2018. PHOTO: REUTERS

BAGHDAD (REUTERS) - At least 18 people were killed and over 90 wounded in an explosion in Baghdad's Sadr City district on Wednesday (June 6), an Iraqi police source said.

Photos from the scene showed a destroyed car and building as well as weeping relatives of victims.

An interior ministry spokesman said in a brief statement the blast was the result of the detonation of an ammunitions cache and that security forces had opened an investigation.

The ammunition had been stored in a mosque and the explosion happened during its transfer into a car parked nearby, the police source said.

Earlier, state television cited a ministry spokesman describing the explosion as "a terrorist aggression on civilians," which had caused "martyrs and wounded".

Authorities did not offer an explanation of the discrepancies between the two statements, neither of which gave casualty figures.

Sadr City is a stronghold of nationalist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose political bloc won a May 12 parliamentary election. Parliament ordered a national recount of votes on Wednesday.

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