Baghdad, Iraq – Thunderous car bombs shattered a crowded marketplace in the heart of Baghdad on Monday, triggering secondary explosions, engulfing an eight-story building in flames and killing at least 78 people in the latest in a series of similar attacks aimed at the country’s Shiite majority.
The blasts in three parked cars obliterated shops and stalls and left bodies scattered among mannequins and other debris in pools of blood.
Small fires, fueled by clothing and other goods, burned for hours in the rubble-strewn street as firefighters battled blazes in two buildings.
The attack appeared timed to coincide with the first anniversary – on the Muslim lunar calendar – of the bombing of a Shiite shrine in the town of Samarra near Baghdad, an al-Qaeda provocation that unleashed the torrent of sectarian bloodletting that has gripped the capital for months.
Monday’s bombings wrecked the Shorja market, Baghdad’s oldest, a day after joint U.S. and Iraqi forces temporarily sealed an adjacent neighborhood. The operation was part of the latest Baghdad security push to which President Bush has committed an additional 21,500 American troops. The U.S. military would not say whether it had increased security patrols against potential violence on the Samarra anniversary.
Nationwide, 133 people were killed or found dead in violence Monday, according to police reports. About 30 minutes before the attack on the market, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives vest in a crowd near a popular falafel restaurant in the nearby Bab al-Sharqi area. Nine people were killed and 19 wounded.
A 15-minute period of commemoration in the capital marking the February 2006 attack on the al-Askariya shrine had just ended when the attack on the market took place.
The sound of two of the blasts was caught on tape as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was delivering a speech live on television from the Cabinet building in the heavily fortified Green Zone at the end of the commemoration.
The Shiite prime minister didn’t flinch as he called for unity and said he was optimistic about the U.S.-Iraqi security sweep that officials said will gain momentum this week.
“We have great faith in our security services, army and police who have proved that they are a real protective force for this country, and we have faith that Iraqis have realized that there will be no future for this country unless terrorism is curbed,” he said.
