Isis has claimed responsibility for killing at least 50 people using a car bomb reportedly disguised as a fruit and vegetable stall in Baghdad.
The blast hit a crowded outdoor market in a predominantly Shia area of the Iraqi capital's Sadr City district, ripping through nearby buildings and leaving cars riddled with shrapnel.
Officials said it killed at least 50 people and wounded more than 60 others. There were fears the death toll would rise as many victims remained in a serious or critical condition.
Karim Salih, a 45-year old grocer, said the bomb was concealed inside a pick-up truck loaded with fruit and vegetables. He said it was parked by a man who quickly disappeared among the crowds of people.
“It was such a thunderous explosion that jolted the ground,” he told the Associated Press.
“The force of the explosion threw me for meters and I lost conscious for a few minutes."
Isis released an online statement claiming it had targeted a gathering of Shia fighters in the attack.
The terror group has carried out numerous similar massacres in recent month as it continues to control swathes of northern and western Iraq, where it is being pushed back by Iraqi forces, Shia militias and the Popular Mobilisation Forces.
Barack Obama has hailed the recapture of around 40 per cent of former Isis territory in the country but terror attacks in the capital and elsewhere have continued unabated.
On 2 May, the so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility for killing 18 Shia pilgrims in another car bombing in Baghdad, while a double explosion had killed more than 30 people in the Iraq city of Samawah the previous day.
Sadr City has seen several rounds of fighting since the Iraq invasion in 2003, with terror attacks rising since a vehicle bomb blast that killed more than 60 civilians in 2009.
In February, Isis carried out devastating back-to-back market bombings in the district, killing at least 73 people.
The Sunni jihadist group has declared Shia Muslims apostates and has targeted them in bombings at mosques, markets and on pilgrimages in several countries.
The UN's Special Representative for Iraq, Jan Kubis, warned last week that a political deadlock and civil unrest threatened to undermine progress and urged Iraqi authorities not to underestimate a "formidable and determined enemy".
According to the United Nations at least 741 Iraqis, including more than 400 civilians, were killed in April and 1,374 wounded due to the ongoing violence.
Additional reporting by agencies
