BAGHDAD, July 13: Thirty-two Iraqi youngsters, most of them under age 15, were killed on Wednesday when a suicide car bomber blew himself up near US soldiers as they handed out chocolates in a Baghdad neighbourhood.

Another 31, mostly children, were also wounded in the blast, while a US soldier died and three were injured, hospital and US sources said.

“Children gathered around the Americans who were handing out sweets. Suddenly a suicide car bomber drove around from a side street and blew himself up,” Sergeant David Abrams told AFP.

A nearby house caught fire in the explosion.

Witness Mohammed Ali Hamza said US forces had gone to the south-eastern district of Al-Jedidah to warn residents to stay indoors because of reports of a car bomb in the area.

At the nearby Kindi hospital, hundreds of distraught parents mingled in blood-soaked hallways shouting and screaming as they looked for their children, many of whom were badly mutilated.

“We have received the bodies of 24 children aged between 10 and 13,” said the official in charge of the morgue.

Abu Hamed, whose 12-year-old son Mohammed was killed, said: “I was at home. I heard the explosion. I rushed outside to find my son. I only found his bicycle.”

He found his son in the hospital morgue.

“I recognized him from his head. The rest of the body was completely burnt.”

Among the young bodies at the morgue, some headless or missing limbs, two children still clutched blue chocolate wrappers.

Hassan Mohammed, whose 13-year-old son Alaa also died, swore at insurgents for attacking civilians.

“Why do they attack our children? They just destroyed one US Humvee, but they killed dozens of our children,” he said as grief-stricken women screamed, slapped their faces and beat themselves over the head.

“What sort of a resistance is this? It’s a crime,” he said.