Police claim of Baghdad incident as controlled explosion

A blast in Baghdad's Sadr City district on Thursday was a controlled explosion and caused no deaths or injuries, an Iraqi police official said.

Colonel Jamal Hameed told Reuters a parcel had been found on the side of the road near a market and was detonated by an ordnance team sent by the joint military-police Baghdad Operations Command.

Earlier a military statement described the blast as a suicide bombing that had killed and wounded several people.