Double bombing kills 28 people in Baghdad market

AT LEAST 28 people, including women and children, were killed and scores wounded in a double bombing in a Baghdad market yesterday, the deadliest attack to rock the Iraqi capital in months, security officials said.

The attackers first detonated a car bomb in the Sunni district of Adhamiyah, then minutes later a suicide bomber ran into the resulting melee and blew up, according to defence and interior ministry officials.

An interior ministry official said at least 68 people were wounded in the rush-hour attack, the deadliest to hit Baghdad since June 17 when 51 people were killed and 75 wounded in a car bombing in the Al-Hurriya district.

Witnesses said it took place on Kassra street, a road lined with restaurants and coffee shops popular for breakfast with Iraqi security forces, as a bus carrying young girls to school drove past.

The US and Iraqi military cordoned off the area that was littered with glass and scorched cars as sobbing parents desperately searched for their children.

Among those killed were three policemen, three women and five children, police said.

The US military said in a statement two improvised explosive devices had been detonated followed by an unknown explosion.

The Medical City hospital received 37 wounded people, including several women and children and two Iraqi soldiers, a medic said.

Suicide attacks and double bombings are usually the hallmark of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.