![](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2007\/05\/wreck.jpg\" "\\"wreck\\"")
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — A pre-dawn coalition military raid killed at least eight gunmen and uncovered a bloodstained torture chamber in a building in Baghdad’s Sadr City that was later destroyed by a powerful controlled explosion.<\/p>\nBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — A pre-dawn coalition military raid killed at least eight gunmen and uncovered a bloodstained torture chamber in a building in Baghdad’s Sadr City that was later destroyed by a powerful controlled explosion.<\/p>\n
But throughout Sunday insurgents wreaked havoc by killing at least 45 people and wounding dozens of others in multiple bomb attacks.<\/p>\n
The deadliest bomb attack took place in a market in southwestern Baghdad’s Bayaa section around noon. An Iraqi interior ministry official said a parked car bomb explosion killed 33 people and wounded 74 others.<\/p>\n
Insurgents frequently target busy markets to produce the most carnage. Police and government officials are also prime targets.<\/p>\n
One police officer was killed and three others were wounded while patrolling Baghdad’s Saydia neighborhood when a roadside bomb exploded, an interior ministry official said.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, six police officers were killed and 10 others were wounded when a suicide car bomber exploded outside the police headquarters in Samarra, located just north of Baghdad.<\/p>\n
A Samarra police official said the attack took place just as a curfew imposed to prevent such attacks was lifted. The curfew was immediately reimposed.<\/p>\n
The Islamic State of Iraq — the insurgent umbrella group that includes al Qaeda in Iraq — had recently warned Samarra police that they would be targeted in future attacks, which prompted the curfew.<\/p>\n
Within Baghdad’s central Mansour district, at least five people were killed and 10 others were wounded in the blast from an explosives-rigged car parked near the Labor Ministry, an interior ministry official said.<\/p>\n
U.S. and Iraqi forces chasing a "terrorist" with ties to Iran early Sunday discovered a bloodstained torture chamber and a massive amount of artillery stored in a building in Baghdad’s Sadr City, the U.S. military said.<\/p>\n
"Had that thing gone off — when you start talking about 150 artillery shells — the extensive damage that it could have done in killing innocent civilians in Sadr City would have been horrific," U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said at a news conference Sunday.<\/p>\n
The building was destroyed in a controlled explosion by a U.S. military ordnance team. Video showed a massive pile of rubble, with some debris landing on nearby cars. Other vehicles had shattered windows, possibly from the impact of the blast.<\/p>\n
The raid took place in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday, and triggered a gunbattle that left eight to 10 gunmen dead, according to the U.S. military. There were no reports of any casualties among coalition or Iraqi security forces.<\/p>\n
There were no reports of any casualties among coalition or Iraqi security forces.<\/p>\n
‘Secret cell’
Sadr City, a densely populated Shiite neighborhood, is a stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia.<\/p>\n
Caldwell would not reveal specific information about the "known terrorist" that was the target of the intelligence-driven raid because he was still on the run.<\/p>\n
"As best we know this was some kind of Shia extremist element, some sort of secret cell," Caldwell said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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