Baghdad, Jan 22
As many as 75 people were killed and 160 wounded when two car bombs
exploded in downtown Baghdad's crowded al-Harag market Monday in one
of the bloodiest orgies in violence-torn Iraq.
A health ministry official who declined to be named said the toll
might rise since the condition of some of the wounded was serious.
Al-Harag market is one of the busiest in the Iraqi capital, and
witnesses said it was very crowded when the two bombs went off in
quick succession.
Roads leading to the market were cordoned off as paramedics and
ambulances rushed to the carnage site.
An interior ministry source told Xinhua that 75 people died in the
horrific bombings and at least 160 people wounded, adding the latest
number was collected from police patrols and hospitals.
One explosion took place near a police commando checkpoint on a road
at Bab al-Sharji district and the other nearby where vendors were
selling DVDs and second hand clothes, witnesses said.
The first car bomb went off in a busy market. Many civilian cars
caught fire and nearby shops and buildings were damaged.
Said Abu Haiderm, who witnessed the explosion: "I saw nearly 30
people dead or severely wounded."
A new wave of violence has raged across the capital in recent days
following an announcement by Iraqi authorities and US forces that
they would carry out a new security plan in Baghdad to crack down on
illegal militants.
Meanwhile, two more US soldiers were confirmed killed in Iraq
Monday, bringing the total over the weekend to 24.
A US military spokesman said two Marines died in attacks by
insurgents in the Fallujah area Saturday.
Twelve US soldiers were killed earlier in a helicopter crash
northeast of Baghdad, five US soldiers died in a militia attack on a
security centre in Karbala and five US soldiers elsewhere.
A Shia newspaper described Monday the call to dissolve al-Mahdi army
as a "major disaster" and "political suicide".
Iraqi Sunni political authorities and the US accuse the al-Mahdi
army of targeting Sunni clerks and mosques as well as kidnapping and
killing Sunni Iraqis.
But Al-Biea newspaper of the Hezbollah movement in Iraq said calls
for the disbandment of the army of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr
were being made for "political gains".
It said: "Those who urge the Americans to dissolve the al-Mahdi army
are deceitful and sectarian."
The need for the army to be formed in the first place had come from
the absence of an administration "capable of preserving security in
Iraq", it said.
Formed by al-Sadr in June 2003 in the Sadr City district of Baghdad,
the al-Mahdi army is the biggest armed militia in Iraq.
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