Iraqis bury victims of bombings

2008-02-02 22:29

Baghdad - Weeping relatives loaded simple wood coffins atop minivans on Saturday in Baghdad as the city buried dozens of victims of the deadliest bombings since the US flooded the capital with extra troops last spring.

Iraqi officials raised the death toll of Friday's attacks to at least 99 - including 62 people killed at the central al-Ghazl market and 37 others killed about 20 minutes later across town, at the New Baghdad area pigeon market. The Iraqi police, hospital and Interior Ministry officials all spoke on customary condition of anonymity.

At least 88 people were wounded in al-Ghazl, and 56 others in the second blast, they said.

Two mentally disabled women strapped with remote-control explosives - and possibly used as unwitting suicide bombers - brought carnage to the two pet bazaars, in attacks Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said sought to "turn Baghdad back to the pre-surge period".

Charred remains

The so-called American troop surge brought some 30 000 reinforcements to the Iraqi capital and its surrounding belts, helping reduce violence dramatically. Friday's pet market bombings were the city's largest attacks since the buildup began.

"Terrorists have revealed how morally degraded they are... and their hatred of humanity and all Iraqis," al-Maliki said in a statement released by his office on Saturday.

Onlookers gathered at the New Baghdad pigeon market Saturday, peering through twisted metal into the charred remains of stalls and shops. Vendors sifted through ruined wares. One man held up a tattered piece of clothing, ripped apart by Friday's blast or in the frenzied panic that followed.

"Every place in Baghdad is exposed to terrorist attacks," said survivor Badir Sami, 42. "I demand tighter security measures at popular markets like this, where many people gather especially on Fridays."

Another pigeon dealer, Ali Mansour, said he was packing up his shop after surviving three attacks in the al-Ghazl market.

"This is the third time I have escaped death, by a miracle," the 26-year-old said. "So I have decided to stop working here. From now on I will stay at my second shop in Habibiyah," Mansour said. Habibiyah is another predominantly Shiite area, near Sadr City.

Female bombers had Down's syndrome

Meanwhile, Iraqi forces raided two villages north of the capital on on Saturday, killing seven suspected militants and arresting four others, police said. The US military also said its forces killed one suspected militant and detained 13 in two days of raids across northern and central Iraq.

In Baghdad, the charred bodies of Friday's bombing victims were laid under tarps outside a hospital morgue. Weeping relatives knelt to claim them, lifting them into coffins that were then strapped to minivans for transport to cemeteries.

Brigadier General Qassim al-Moussawi, Iraq's chief military spokesperson in Baghdad, said the female bombers had Down's syndrome and may not have known they were on suicide missions. He said the bombs were detonated by remote control.

The tactic could reinforce US claims al-Qaeda in Iraq may be increasingly desperate and running short of able-bodied men willing or available for such missions.

But the bombings also served as a reminder that Iraqi insurgents are constantly shifting their strategies in attempts to unravel recent security gains around the country. Women have been used in ever greater frequency in suicide attacks - six times now since November.

- AP