BAGHDAD, Iraq — A suicide car bomber exploded among a group of children who were reportedly taking candy, water and other gifts from U.S. soldiers yesterday in Baghdad, killing about 27 people, including 18 children and an American soldier.

The blast wounded three U.S. soldiers and at least 19 Iraqis, left a 10-foot-long crater and set a nearby home on fire.

The youngsters had been playing near the soldiers at an impromptu checkpoint in Jadida, a lower-class residential district of low-lying buildings and rotting water mains populated by Shiites, Sunnis and Christians.

"Where is Taha?" 8-year-old Saif Halob asked as he sobbed near his father. His green shorts and T-shirt were drenched in blood from the wounds on his arm and left leg. "I want Taha."

His 18-year-old brother was dead, killed in the blast with so many others. Their father, Fawzi Halob, cried in the funeral tent. His son had been getting his house ready for his upcoming marriage.

Among the wounded was 4-day-old Miriam Jabber, cut slightly by flying glass and debris.

Despite reports by witnesses, U.S. military officials denied that the soldiers were giving out candy, something that was officially discouraged after a suicide bomber killed 35 children in similar circumstances during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new sewage plant last September.

Several soldiers were on the street "interacting" with the children at the time of the blast, said Sgt. David Abrams, a spokesman for the 3rd Infantry Division in Baghdad. "They were not handing out candy," he said.

"This horrific attack against children continues to bring home to everyone that the terrorists offer nothing of value or future for the Iraqi people," U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Boylan said. "To attack children in this manner goes against all that is good and proper in the world."

U.S. soldiers attached to the Army's 3rd Infantry Division had descended on the neighborhood as part of a "cordon-and-search" operation following up on a tip that an improvised explosive device was in the area, said Abrams.

Children approached

Iraqi children, eyeing the helmet- and flak-jacket-clad soldiers in armored Humvees, approached a group and began pleading for candy, witnesses said.

"It was just the natural inclination of the children to come running up to the side of the Humvee and the soldiers," Abrams said.

Witnesses said the soldiers first shooed them away, but eventually relented, handing out sweets and drawing a larger crowd of children.

It was at that point, the witnesses said, that the suicide bomber drove an SUV toward the crowd and detonated it. The explosion sent a fireball across the intersection, destroying several houses and shattering windows throughout the neighborhood.

Residents were stunned and angry.

"The one who did this has no morality. This suicide bomber isn't an Arab or a Muslim or even a Jew. He's not human," Suheil Abd Ali said as he picked up burned, broken pieces of the car bomb.

"What happened today just furthers the loathing that people have against the terrorists," Boylan said.

But most residents of the neighborhood blamed American soldiers at least in part and said they wanted them off their streets.

"The killer is unknown but the motive is brought by the U.S.," Raed Abdullah, 33, said as he paid respects to a mourning father.

Ali Abdul Kadhel, 27, carried one of the small bodies after the attack and watched a piece of candy fall from the child's pocket.

"I found the bait that the Americans gave to the children to bring them to their death," he yelled as he carried the candy through the street.

Toys, candy reported

Residents said one soldier had yelled into a loudspeaker and told residents to open their windows and doors. Then they began to hand out toys, candy and water.

"They used the children as human shields," Kadhel said, yelling and waving his arm.

At Kindi hospital, Yasmine Mahdi's small, limp body was covered in bandages. Tubes pierced her arm and nose. She opened her eyes and looked at her father.

"Daddy, I'm thirsty," she said.

Khalid Mahdi patted her hair, and her mother, Fatima, cried, worried about the child's pierced intestines.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack yesterday. But Iraq's most feared terrorist group, which calls itself al-Qaida in Iraq, had warned Iraqis last week in an Internet statement not to go near U.S. soldiers and Iraqi forces. "You will be hurt, our brothers, Muslims," it said.

A woman whose son had been wounded and taken to the hospital said responsibility lay solely with the insurgents and their leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "I swear to God," said the woman, who identified herself as Umm Salam, "if my son dies, I will drink from al-Zarqawi's blood."

Compiled from Knight Ridder Newspapers, Los Angeles Times, The Associated Press, Chicago Tribune and Newsday