Car bomb kills 62 in Iraq

Around the same time as the bombing, a Sunni Arab Member of Parliament and seven of her guards were abducted in the city.

Police said the market bomb went off in mid-morning as a police patrol was passing a parked car in a market area of Baghdad’s eastern Sadr City district, a stronghold of the Mehdi Army militia of radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al Sadr.

Angry crowds formed around the scene of devastation at the sprawling outdoor market along a main road in the slum district.

‘‘May God curse the Sunnis,’’ one man yelled. ‘‘If the government can’t protect people, they should hand over security to the Mehdi Army or to the people,’’ another told reporters.

It was the deadliest attack since US forces killed al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, in a June 7 Air strike. Bin Laden, in an Internet recording, urged insurgents to avenge his death, describing the Jordanian as a ‘‘lion of Jihad’’.

The US on Friday put a $5 million bounty on the head of Zarqawi’s reputed successor, Abu Ayyub al Masri. With the highest toll since over 70 died at a Shi’ite mosque on April 7, it was also the bloodiest attack since Shi’ite PM Nuri al Maliki formed a unity coalition six weeks ago.

A previously unknown Iraqi Sunni Muslim group claimed responsibility for the attack saying it was avenging Shi’ite Muslim killings of Sunnis. ‘‘Every day the world sees what rejectionist (Shi’ite) militia … do to the Sunni folk in Iraq with blessing and support from the rejectionist government led by (Nuri) al Maliki,’’ said the statement by the Supporters of the Sunni People posted on a website.

‘‘You have started and here we answer your aggression,’’ said the statement, whose authenticity could not be verified. ‘‘We tell the wise among the Shi’ites repent and stop your fight against us to save yourselves, your kin and your homes,’’ it added.