Two mentally disabled women strapped with remote-control explosives – and possibly used as unwitting suicide bombers – brought carnage to two pet bazaars, killing at least 99 people.

Three parked car bombs exploded in central Baghdad today near a predominantly Shiite area packed with vendors, killing at least 43 people and wounding 91, officials said.

Three parked car bombs exploded in central Baghdad today near a predominantly Shiite area packed with vendors, killing at least 38 people and wounding 84, officials said.

At least eight people were killed by a pair of car bombs that tore through shoppers in central Baghdad today, while a Slovak and Polish soldier were reported killed overnight by a roadside bomb south of the capital.

LAST month saw the highest monthly death toll in Iraq since the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, an Iraqi government minister said yesterday.