Baghdad woke to more blasts yesterday, after at least 130 people were killed in the second deadliest attack to hit Iraq since the US-led invasion of March 2003.
More than 300 people were also wounded when a suicide bomber blew up his Mercedes truck in a Baghdad market on Saturday.
The blast was the worst attack since coordinated car bombings in the Baghdad Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City on Nov. 23 killed at least 202 people.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed the attack in central Baghdad's Sadiriya district on followers of executed president Saddam Hussein.
"The Iraqi people and the world is shocked by this crime which struck the popular market in Sadiriya and resulted in massive casualties," Maliki said in a statement. "The Saddamists have returned to commit a new crime."
Maliki said that his administration was determined to stop the violence.
"They have cheapened the blood of Iraqi people by killing innocent victims in markets and universities," he said. "But we assure the population that we will put an end to these crimes."
US authorities also vowed to hunt down the attackers.
"To those who commit these heinous crimes, we send this message. You will be relentlessly hunted until you are apprehended and brought to justice," US Ambassador in Baghdad Zalmay Khalilzad said in a statement. "Have no doubts you will pay for your role in these crimes."
The Iraqi government pointed the finger at militants infiltrating from neighboring Syria for the latest bloodshed, with which it restored diplomatic relations only late last year.
"What we see on the streets of Baghdad, 50 percent of it is coming from Syria," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said. "I confirm that 50 percent of the murders and bombings are by Arab extremists from Syria."
More blasts could be heard across the city early yesterday, including mortar rounds which fell not far from the heavily fortified Green Zone, the seat of Iraqi parliament and the US embassy, although no immediate casualties were reported.
An Iraqi bomb expert said that the truck in Saturday's market attack was packed with 1 tonne of explosives.
The blast sent a long plume of thick grey smoke into the overcast sky just before dusk, when markets are usually crowded with shoppers out for food ahead of the nighttime curfew that takes effect at 9pm.
Terrified survivors threw stones at police who had cordoned off the area and prevented ambulances from reaching the scene amid rumors of another bomb in an ambulance.
Police transported the victims in all available police vehicles, but one who was evacuating casualties in his blood-spattered pick-up truck was beaten up by shocked survivors.
There were chaotic scenes at local hospitals as volunteers rushed in the wounded while charred and bloodied bodies lay in trucks and corridors that became makeshift mortuaries.
The blast also brought down nearby houses, and many people were reportedly trapped in the rubble.
Prior to Saturday's attack, a twin car bombing on Jan. 22 near the capital's Haraj market killed 88 people, and on Thursday, 73 people were killed in double suicide bomb attacks in the mainly Shiite town of Hilla, south of Baghdad.
The intensifying bomb campaign poses a major challenge to Iraqi and US authorities as they fine-tune a make-or-break security plan to stabilize the capital.
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