Female suicide bombers killed 72 people in attacks blamed on al Qaeda at two popular Baghdad pet markets today, the city's worst attacks in six months, dealing a blow to Iraq's hopes that security is getting better.
Police said a female suicide bomber killed 45 people and wounded 82 at the Ghazil pet market in central Baghdad. Another blast 10 minutes earlier killed 27 people and wounded 67 at a bird market in southern Baghdad, police said.
The U.S. military, which gave lower casualty figures, said both attacks were caused by female suicide bombers and blamed Sunni Islamist al Qaeda in Iraq.
"By targeting innocent Iraqis they show their true demonic character," Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Stover, a spokesman for U.S. troops in Baghdad, said in a statement.
While attacks have fallen across Iraq in recent months, the blasts underscore U.S. military warnings that al Qaeda remains dangerous and a return to violence that took Iraq to the brink of sectarian civil war is still possible.
At the Ghazil market, one of Baghdad's most popular gathering places, people stared at the destruction as workers swept up body parts and blood-stained animal boxes.
"I came here to enjoy myself. I don't know how I survived," said witness Abu Haider, who was covered in blood as he stood among ruined stalls and carcasses of birds and other animals.
"I was right there at the scene when the blast happened. It knocked me over. When I managed to get up, I saw dozens had been killed and wounded," he said.
One witness said the female bomber entered the market saying she had birds to sell. Scores of people gathered and then the bomb underneath her clothing went off, the witness said.
DETONATED BY REMOTE CONTROL Major-General Qassim Moussawi, spokesman for the Iraqi military in Baghdad, said both suicide bombs were detonated remotely by mobile telephones.
"We found the mobiles used to detonate the women," he said. Ambulances tried to push through packed streets to get to Ghazil after the blast, which occurred in almost exactly the same spot as a bombing which killed 13 people on Nov. 23.
Police and civil defence officials piled the wounded into wheelbarrows, cars and the back of pick-up trucks while U.S. soldiers helped secure the area. Officials at nearby hospitals said they struggled to cope with the wounded.
"Most people who visit this market are poor and just want to enjoy themselves but they came and got killed," said Hassan Salman, who sells bird seed at the Ghazil market.
The Ghazil market only opens on Fridays and sells a colourful range of creatures from guard dogs and monkeys to parrots, pigeons and tropical fish.
The November blast, caused by a bomb hidden inside a box of birds, was a big psychological blow for residents who had just begun returning to the streets after security crackdowns last year helped arrest a slide towards all-out sectarian civil war. About 10 people killed in two separate blasts in the Ghazil market in January and February last year.
The latest blast was the worst single attack in Baghdad for six months. Fifty people were killed when a fuel truck exploded in the capital on Aug. 1 last year.
Violence has fallen sharply across Iraq, with the number of attacks down 60 percent since last June, allowing Iraqis to venture out to markets and restaurants as they attempt to return to a semblance of normal life.
The declining violence has been attributed to 30,000 extra U.S. troops, which became fully deployed last June, and the growth of primarily Sunni Arab local police units.
On Thursday, Iraqi government figures showed that 466 Iraqi civilians had died violently in January, more than 76 percent lower than the 1,971 killed in January 2007.