Nearly 140 people were wounded in the attacks in Sadr City, slum bastion of a powerful Shi'ite militia. Two car bombs ripped through one market and a third blast, probably also a car bomb, struck another. Mortar bombs were also fired into the district.

"People were torn to pieces," a witness, who declined to be named, said at the scene.

Earlier on Sunday, 10 people were killed in a series of mortar blasts and roadside bombings. Altogether, from body counts during the day at least 80 people were killed. Reuters reporters witnessed chaotic scenes at a hospital in Sadr City where many of the casualties were taken. One woman wept and a man slapped his head in grief. Some of the wounded were lying on the floor.

Shi'ite Muslim reprisals after Sunni Arab insurgents were blamed for the bombing of a shrine on February 22 pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war and officials have warned a new incident could push the country into all-out conflict. Sadr City, stronghold of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia, has been relatively free of violence, possibly due to Sadr's efforts to cooperate with Sunnis in fighting U.S. occupation.

Reuters