Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has blamed Saddam loyalists for a market bombing that killed at least 130 people and injured 305. The market is in a predominantly Shiite district. Meanwhile, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani made an appeal for unity.


BBC:

Police say the vehicle blew up in al-Sadriya district as people bought food ahead of a night-time curfew.

It shattered stalls and left a huge crater in the street, in the heavily populated, predominantly Shia area.

Only the Sadr City bombings in November, which killed more than 200 people, have claimed more lives.

[…]On Saturday, Iraq’s most prominent Shia cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, made a new appeal to all Iraqis.

“Everybody knows the necessity for us to stand together and reject the sectarian tension to avoid stirring sectarian differences,” he said.

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