A huge car bomb blast ripped through a used-car market in southern Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 48 people, security and medical sources said, in the deadliest such attack in Iraq this year.
Islamic State, which is on the defensive after losing control of eastern Mosul to a US-backed Iraqi military offensive, claimed responsibility for the bombing in an online statement.
The Thursday bombing was the third such attack to hit the Iraqi capital in three days.
IS has stepped up its attacks on government areas after ceding territory to government troops.
Mobile phone footage circulated on social media showed charred bodies and extensive destruction in the Bayaa neighbourhood of the Iraqi capital.
The explosion went off at about 4.15pm local time. Security and medical sources said at least 55 people had been wounded.
The city was rocked by a wave of deadly suicide bombings during the first days of 2017, but relatively few explosions had been reported since then until this week.
