A tractor-trailer loaded with Shiite militia rockets exploded yesterday in a densely populated area of northeast Baghdad, killing 18 people and wounding 75, the U.S. military said.

Iraqi police said the blast was a suicide truck bomb that struck near the home of an Iraqi police general, killing his nephew and wounding his elderly parents.

But the U.S. military said Shiite extremists were positioning a truck loaded with rockets and mortars, aiming the weapons at a U.S. combat outpost 640 metres away, when it mistakenly exploded.

"They were trying to attack us at that FOB (forwarding operating base), and it went off (accidentally). They wouldn't waste rockets like that," U.S. spokesman Lt.-Col. Steve Stover said.

He said the militants had likely fled recent fighting in Sadr City.

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