Fuel tanker explosion kills 50 at Baghdad gas = station

Story Highlights=20
NEW: Dozens killed and wounded in afternoon blast in = western=20 Baghdad
NEW: Deadly blast follows earlier bombing near ice cream = shop
The bomb in a four-wheel drive vehicle went off in a bustling = commercial=20 area
Karrada has been hit by a string of bombs in the past 10 = days
N= ext=20 Article in World =BB

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A fuel tanker packed with = explosives=20 detonated at a gas station Wednesday, killing at least 50 people and = wounding 60=20 others in western Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said. =

Younis Muhammad, 7, receives treatment=20 after a blast that killed 15 in a Baghdad commercial = district.

Ten cars were burned in the early afternoon blast in the Mansour = district of=20 the capital.

Earlier Wednesday, at least 15 people were killed and 20 others were = wounded=20 when a suicide car bomb exploded in a busy square in Baghdad's Karrada = district,=20 the Interior Ministry said.

The explosion took place near a popular ice cream shop and electronic = stores=20 in a commercial area.

Karrada, on the eastern side of the Tigris River, is normally one of = the more=20 stable areas in the Iraqi capital but has been hit by a string of bombs = in the=20 past 10 days.

A parked car bomb killed 25 people and wounded 115 last Thursday, = three days=20 after three separate bombs killed another 13 people in the same = district.

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U.S. and Iraqi forces have stepped up security operations in Baghdad = since=20 mid-February in an attempt to stem bombings, many of them blamed on al = Qaeda,=20 the Sunni Islamist group that U.S. officials say is trying to spark a = full-scale=20 civil war in Iraq.

Operations have also been expanded in other parts of the country = after=20 Washington sent an extra 30,000 troops in an attempt to buy time for the = Iraqi=20 government to meet a series of political benchmarks aimed at promoting = national=20 reconciliation. E-mail=20 to a friend 3D"E-mail