IRAQ: Bombs at two pet markets kill 72, knocking tentative stability since extra U.S. troop deployment

Record ID: 356784

  • Title: IRAQ: Bombs at two pet markets kill 72, knocking tentative stability since extra U.S. troop deployment
  • Date: 1st February 2008
  • Summary: (W2) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (FEBRUARY 1, 2008) (AGENCY POOL) AMBULANCE LEAVING
  • Embargoed: 16th February 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAC0WJV14OI50TXKRAG48J7VIVY
  • Story Text: A suicide bomb at Ghazil pet market and a blast at another bird market in Baghdad are the deadliest attacks in six months of relative calm following the deployment of extra U.S. troops in Iraq last year.
    Bomb blasts ripped through two popular pet markets in Baghdad on Friday (February 1), killing 72 people in the deadliest attacks in the city in six months and dealing a bitter blow to Iraqi hopes that security is improving.
    Police said a female suicide bomber killed 45 people and wounded 82 at the Ghazil pet market in central Baghdad.
    Another blast shortly after, caused either by a roadside bomb or a second female suicide bomber, killed 27 people and wounded 67 at a bird market in southern Baghdad, they said.
    While attacks have continued to fall across Iraq in recent months, the latest blasts underscore U.S. military warnings that a return to the 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 and which has been bombed at least three times in the past year, people stared at the destruction as workers swept up body parts.
    Major-General Qassim Moussawi, spokesman for the Iraqi military in Baghdad, said in both attacks women had been loaded with explosives which were then detonated remotely.
    He said the mobiles used to detonate the women had been found.
    Witnesses said that the bomb at the new Baghdad bird market was caused by a female suicide woman.

    "A woman came at 1000 or 1030 (a.m.) and said that she has birds, so people who sell birds gathered around her. She said that she wanted to sell the birds. When the people gathered, the blast occurred. You can see the massacre. It is unprecedented massacre," said an eyewitness from the area as he stood among debris of damaged birdcages.
    But police said the bird market attack was caused by a roadside bomb.
    The Ghazil market blast occurred in almost exactly the same spot as a bombing which killed 13 people on November 23.
    The market has been bombed several times, with about 10 people killed in two separate blasts there in January and February last year.
    The Ghazil market blast was the worst single attack in Baghdad for six months. Fifty people were killed when a fuel truck exploded in the capital on August 1 last year.
    Violence has fallen sharply across Iraq, with the number of attacks down 60 percent since last June, enabling Iraqis to venture out to markets and restaurants as they returned to a semblance of normal life.
    The declining violence has been attributed to the presence of 30,000 extra U.S. troops, who were fully deployed last June, and the growth of primarily Sunni Arab local police units.
    Despite the improved security, U.S. commanders warn that Sunni Islamist al Qaeda, blamed for most large-scale attacks in Iraq, remains a dangerous enemy.
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