26 killed as bomb hits Shia site in Baghdad

A suicide bomber detonated an explosive-packed car outside a Shia Muslim office in central Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 26 people and wounding more than 190 in an attack bearing the hallmarks of Iraq's al Qaeda affiliate. The bombing on a Shia religious office comes at a sensitive time, with the country's fractious Shia, Sunni and Kurdish blocs locked in a crisis that threatens to unravel their power-sharing deal and spill into sectarian tensions.
The attacker targeted the Shia Endowment - a government-run body that manages Shia religious and cultural sites - leaving dead and wounded along a main street nearby and blasting part of its headquarters to rubble, police said. "It was a powerful explosion, dust and smoke covered the area. At first I couldn't see anything, but then I heard screaming women and children," said policeman Ahmed Hassan, who was at a nearby police station when the bomb went off.