Wakes held for Baghdad car bomb dead

Baghdad: Grieving relatives retrieved bodies from hospital morgues Thursday, and passers-by gawked at the giant crater left by a market bomb in one of four attacks that killed 183 people on the bloodiest day since the US troop increase began nine weeks ago.

Many of the more than 230 Iraqis killed or found dead nationwide a day earlier were buried in quiet ceremonies before Thursday's noon prayer, according to Muslim tradition. Other bodies laid in refrigeration containers,still unidentified, at morgues across Baghdad.

In Sadr City, relatives flocked to Imam Ali Hospital to claim the bodies of loved ones. A man held his shirt over his mouth and nose as he moved past decaying bodies.Nearby, four men loaded a casket onto a minibus.

The most devastating blast struck the Sadriyah market as workers were leaving for the day, charring a lineup of minibuses that came to pick them up. At least 127 people were killed and 148 wounded, including men who were rebuilding the market after a February 3 bombing left 137 dead.

On Thursday, collective wakes were being held for multiple victims in huge tents erected in narrow alleys and at nearby mosques within view of the blast site. Onlookers gathered around a crater about three yards wide and one yard deep, left by the force of the explosion.