A bomb attack rocked central Baghdad ripping a market area which has been targeted by insurgent bombers, a defence official said. The death toll has reached 76.
BAGHDAD: Devastating bomb attacks ripped through two popular central Baghdad markets on Monday, killing at least 76 people in a lethal response to the embattled Iraqi government’s latest security plan.
The blasts appeared timed to mark the end of a national 15-minute pause for reflection called by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on the first anniversary of the demolition of a Shiite shrine by Sunni bombers.
They also struck Shiite districts in the heart of the capital on a day when Maliki’s security forces had launched a massive security sweep designed to halt just this kind of apparently sectarian massacre.
Security and medical officials said at least 67 people were killed and more than 155 wounded by the explosions. “We expect that number to rise, we’re checking the hospitals,” said a defence ministry official.
According to the Islamic calendar, Monday was the first anniversary of the demolition of the golden-domed Shiite mosque in Samarra by Sunni bombers, an outrage which triggered Iraq’s descent into sectarian bloodletting.
Maliki had ordered thousands of police and troops onto the street as part of a much-heralded joint Iraqi and US security plan, snarling traffic across the city as officers searched thousands of cars for weapons. But several bombers apparently made it through the cordon.
Traders at the Shorja market, battling intense flames to save their stock, said two car bombs had detonated in a garage beneath a multi-storey wholesale menswear market packed with small stores and fabric.
Firemen, crowded among jostling bystanders in a tight street, vainly poured streams of water into a building that was still ablaze five hours after the explosion. Nearby, a man sat alone against a red metal shutter, sobbing.
“The government officials sit calmly in their offices, stuck on their chairs,” he spat, reflecting a widespread perception that Maliki’s unity regime has failed to get a grip on the chaos wracking Baghdad.
Dense black smoke and a cloud of dust had poured into the sky after the massive blast rocked the city centre, followed by the wail of police sirens and occasional bursts of automatic fire.
As the fire spread, car petrol tanks exploded one after the other. A second explosion ripped through shoppers in Haraj market, a kilometre (half a mile) away in the crowded Rusafa commercial district, adding to the steady flow of bloodstained bodies arriving in four city hospitals.
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