19 killed in double Baghdad market bombing

At least 18 people were killed and 50 injured when two car bombs exploded five minutes apart in a busy Baghdad market today, police said.

The blasts in the south-west of the Iraqi capital came a day after a bomb killed at least 37 people and wounded more than 150 near a bus station and market close to one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines in Karbala.

A suicide bomber also struck in Baghdad yesterday, blowing up his car on a major bridge and killing 10 in the second such attack in 48 hours.

Chaotic arguing erupted in Iraq's legislature during its Saturday session, with the parliament speaker shouting for order as lawmakers squabbled over who was to blame for holes in security that allowed a suicide bomber to mingle among them on Thursday and kill a Sunni Arab lawmaker.

The political wrangling underlined the continuing weakness of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government despite a more than two-month-old US-Iraqi military operation intended to pacify Baghdad and give his regime room to function.

The crackdown, which will land 30,000 additional American troops in Iraq by the end of next month, comes as opposition to the strategy grows in Washington and emerges as a central issue in the US presidential campaign.

A possible presidential contender and one of the most vocal Republican critics of US President George Bush's Iraq policy, Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, was in Baghdad and planned to hold a news conference today. It was his fifth trip to the war zone.

In an interview broadcast yesterday, Mr al-Maliki said he believed US support for his administration was steadfast.

"I feel that there is strong support because success would mean a civilised and democratic process," he told Al-Arabiya television. "I don't feel any change... despite differences within the American government."

The crackdown also brought a Pentagon decision this past week to extend the deployments of US troops from 12 to 15 months - a situation that the US commander in Iraq acknowledged Saturday was "tough news".

In a letter to his troops, General David Petraeus expressed appreciation for "the hardship and strain the extension will put on you and your families" and warned of "an enormous amount of hard work ahead".

In addition to the bombings in Karbala and Baghdad, at least 40 people were killed or found dead across Iraq yesterday. The US military announced the death of one service member, killed by a roadside bomb in southern Iraq on Friday.

Yesterday's bloodshed in Karbala came when a parked car loaded with explosives blew up at a busy bus station at midmorning, killing at least 37 people and wounding 168, police and hospital officials said. Other reports put the death toll as high as 56.

The station is about 200 yards from one of Shiite Muslims' holiest spots - the Imam Hussein shrine, where the Prophet Muhammad's grandson is buried. The shrine, 50 miles south of Baghdad, is the destination of an annual Shiite pilgrimage, during which hundreds of faithful were slain last month.

A makeshift triage centre was set up in tents near the blast site. A man guided a wooden cart piled with body parts through a tangle of IV bags. The charred body of a child lay motionless on a stretcher.

At least 16 children were among the dead, said Interior Ministry spokesman, Brigadier General Abdul-Karim Khalaf. Iranian and Pakistani pilgrims were also among the casualties, hospital officials said.

"I want my father. Where is my father?" cried Sajad Kadhim, an 11-year-old lying on the ground as doctors treated his burns.

"All I remember was we were shopping. My father was holding my hand and suddenly there was a big explosion. I don't know where my father is. I want my father," the boy cried.

Mourners mobbed ambulances, beating their chests and crying out in grief. Some stormed the Karbala governor's office, demanding his resignation and blaming local authorities for lax security. Two police vehicles were set on fire.

A spokesman for a top Shiite cleric in Karbala, Mohammed Taqi al-Mudarsi, said three civilians were killed in clashes with police.

"The behaviour of Iraqi security forces was uncivil," said the spokesman, Ahmed Al-Shakarji. "People were trying to rescue their relatives and friends... but the security forces opened fire on them."

The suicide car bombing in Baghdad killed 10 people, police said. The concrete structure of the Jadriyah bridge suffered little damage.

On Thursday, a suicide truck bomb collapsed the steel-girder al-Sarafiyah bridge farther north along the Tigris River, plunging cars into the water and killing 11 people.

Parliament convened a regular session a day after an emergency meeting was held to express defiance to insurgents and mourn those wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the assembly's cafeteria on Thursday.

But yesterday' session descended quickly into chaos and angry recriminations.

Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said his office took "full responsibility" for Thursday's security breach, but he reminded legislators that some of them have refused to be searched when entering the building.

Khalaf, the Interior Ministry spokesman, told reporters that the bomber was known to legislators and that they identified his body after the explosion. He did not elaborate. Media speculation has fallen on workers in the building or a lawmaker's bodyguard.

A group with links to al Qaida posted a statement on the internet yesterday, claiming to have kidnapped 20 Iraqi soldiers to avenge the alleged rape of a woman by police. The Islamic State of Iraq threatened to kill the hostages unless the government handed over the alleged rapists within 48 hours.

The statement was accompanied by colour photographs showing 20 blindfolded men in uniform. The claim and photos could not be independently verified, and there were no reports of kidnappings yesterday.

Later, a suicide bomber blew himself up on a small bus in north-west Baghdad, killing at least eight people and wounding 11, police and hospital officials said.

The blast occurred shortly after noon near a courthouse in the al-Utafiyah neighbourhood. Many of the victims were severely burned, an official at the Khazimiyah Hospital said.

Two civilian cars nearby were damaged, police said.

A parked minibus exploded in the Karradah neighbourhood of central Baghdad today, killing nine civilians and wounding 12 others, police and hospital officials said. The blast damaged several cars and nearby shops, witnesses said.