14 killed in Baghdad explosion

At least 14 people were killed and over 90 injured on Wednesday by a huge explosion in Iraq's Baghdad, an official said.

"The latest report said that 14 people were killed and more than 90 others were wounded by the huge explosion of an explosive cache in eastern Baghdad," Xinhua quoted an Interior Ministry source as saying.

The blast occurred in the evening when an explosive cache at a house used as a warehouse went off near a Shiite mosque in the Shiite bastion of Sadr City neighbourhood, a stronghold of nationalist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose party won the May 12 parliamentary election.

The house was totally destroyed and five nearby houses were badly damaged, the source said, without giving further details about which militia owns the house.

Earlier, three civilians were killed and 12 others injured by a car bomb explosion in the Sadr City neighbourhood.

Security authorities have opened an investigation into the explosion to determine if it was an accident or a terror attack.

--IANS

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