Iraqi police said today 68 people were killed in coordinated bombings blamed on al-Qaeda in a packed shopping area in central Baghdad yesterday, making it the deadliest attack in the Iraqi capital for nine months.
A funeral takes place in Najaf after yesterday's bomb attacks
Another 120 people were wounded in the attack, the worst in Baghdad since 87 people were killed in a car bombing at a mosque last June. The US military would not comment on whether the attack would have any impact on planned troop withdrawals.
Iraqi and US officials said a roadside bomb had exploded first in Baghdad's mainly Shia Karrada district, which was crowded with shoppers and vendors yesterday evening. Minutes later, as Iraqi security forces and locals gathered to tend to casualties, a second, larger bomb exploded.
Women and children were among the casualties.
Police and the US military said they believed the second blast was caused by a suicide bomber but Iraqi security officials said it appeared to have been another bomb planted at the scene.
"This crime shows the hatred of these terrorists against the Iraqi people," Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in a statement. The US military said the bombing was the work of al-Qaeda in Iraq and that it knew the cell leader who was responsible.
Violence has fallen sharply across Iraq since 30,000 extra US troops were sent to Iraq last year to quell sectarian violence between majority Shia and minority Sunni Arabs. At the same time a new counter-insurgency strategy was launched.
On Monday, two blasts in central and eastern Baghdad killed 19 people despite tightened security for the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Last month, two women killed 99 people in bombings in packed pet markets in Baghdad. It was against the background of improving security that General David Petraeus, the US military commander in Iraq, announced plans to withdraw five of the 20 US brigades operating in Iraq.