AS WE PREDICTED: ANOTHER BIG ATTACK IN IRAQ: IS IRAN BEHIND IT?

BBC:

At least 69 people have been killed by a bomb blast in the eastern Sadr City area of Baghdad, say Iraqi officials.

Police said the bomb went off in a market place in the predominantly Shia area of the Iraqi capital.

More than 130 people were also reported to have been injured in the blast, one of the worst in Iraq this year.

It comes less than a week before US soldiers pull out of all Iraqi cities, a move the US said would not be affected by a recent surge in violence.

'Horrific'

An interior ministry official told the AFP news agency the blast struck the market place at about 1930 local time (1630 GMT).

"I saw cars flying in the air because of the force of the explosion"

Najim Ali, eyewitness

The official said the bomb was hidden underneath a motorised cart carrying vegetables for sale.

"I heard a boom and saw a ball of fire," said Najim Ali, a 30-year-old father who was injured in the blast.

"I saw cars flying in the air because of the force of the explosion," he was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

Raad Latif, a local shop owner, said the scene after the blast was "horrific".

NYTIMES:

A bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded Wednesday evening in Baghdad’s Sadr City, killing at least 60 people in a popular clothes and vegetable market as it was thronged with shoppers who had waited for sundown before venturing into the hot summer weather, according to the Iraqi interior ministry.

It was at least the third bombing in two weeks to result in double digit casualties in Shiite communities. On Saturday, a truck bomb in Taza, a Shiite Turkmen area in northern Iraq, killed at least 68 people. Earlier in the month, a car bomb exploded outside Nasiriya, the capital of a predominantly Shiite province in southern Iraq where bombs are rare, killing at least 28 people and inciting a near riot among survivors who threw stones at the police, blaming them for lax security.

The bombing on Wednesday occurred just six days before the American forces officially withdraw from Iraqi cities, towns and villages, as required under the Iraqi-American security agreement. But in Baghdad, many of the troops have already withdrawn, and whatever preventative effect they had may well be fast evaporating. In their absence, insurgent groups appear to be beginning to test the now almost wholly-run Iraqi security system.

In 2005, repeated attacks like this one on Shiite neighborhoods eventually prompted Shiites to form their own militias to help protect their population, setting off a cycle of sectarian violence.

REPEAT: In 2005, repeated attacks like this one on Shiite neighborhoods eventually prompted Shiites to form their own militias to help protect their population, setting off a cycle of sectarian violence.

• REPEAT: In 2005, repeated attacks like this one on Shiite neighborhoods eventually prompted Shiites to form their own militias to help protect their population, setting off a cycle of sectarian violence.

I THINK THESE ATTACKS ARE STAGED BY IRAN AND THAT THEY ARE TRYING TO RE-IGNITE THE SECTARIAN CIVIL WAR AS A DIVERSION.

I PREDICTED THIS HERE ON 6/21 AND REITERATED IT THE NEXT DAY HERE.

THE NORTH KOREANS ARE PROBABLY STIRRING THINGS UP TO HELP THEIR ALLIE/CLIENT, TOO.