Death toll rises to 68 in Baghdad double bombing
Funerals were held today for many of the victims of a twin bombing in a crowded Baghdad shopping district that killed at least 68 people and wounded 120.
The funerals were held in the primarily Shiite, middle-class Baghdad neighbourhood of Karradah, the area where the back-to-back bombings took place.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility for yesterday’s attack, but the method was designed to maximise deaths.
It has been the hallmark since 2006 of al-Qaida in Iraq, which has been responsible for killing thousands of people with such attacks.
The tactic seeks to draw in the people with the first blast – especially security, medical workers and other first responders – before a second bomb detonates.
Iraqis were enjoying a pleasant spring evening when a roadside bomb hidden under a vendor’s stall detonated in Karradah.
Five minutes later, a suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt detonated.
Interior Ministry officials said today that 68 people were killed and 120 injured after several people died from their injuries overnight.
Many of the victims were teens or young adults, and four were women, police and officials at three hospitals said.
Hassan Abdullah, who owns a clothing shop in the area, said he was walking to the site of the first blast to see what happened when the second bomb went off.
Mr Abdullah, 25 said: “I saw a leg and a hand falling near me as I was walking. The whole place was a mess. Wounded people were crying for help, and people started to run away.
“The aim of such attacks is the random killing of as many people as possible in order to terrorise Iraqi people.”
A police officer said the blasts damaged seven shops and four parked cars.
Violence has dropped substantially in Baghdad over the last six months with the boost in US troops, a ceasefire by a powerful Shiite militia, and many Sunni fighters turning against al-Qaida in Iraq, but multiple killings are still a daily occurrence.
South east of Baghdad, the US military said it discovered a home in a farming area that served as an al-Qaida in Iraq training facility and prison.
The brick house was located on a dirt road in a remote area of Zambraniyah, about 20 miles south east of Baghdad.
From the outside, nothing appeared unusual. But inside the house, soldiers found handcuffs attached to the floor and to a barred window, hooks used to hang people attached to a wall and interrogation books written in Arabic, the military said.
Daniel Murray, of the US 3rd Infantry Division, said: “It looked like there were remnants where people suffered.”
Troops also found a treadmill and stair-climbing machine in another room.
Squadron commander Lieutenant Colonel Mark Solomon said it appeared the home was used as a base but it was hard to tell when it was last occupied.
He said: “We didn’t miss them by hours … but certainly over the past weeks and months there was activity at the house.
“They had invested in it, in terms of the shackles on the walls, the treadmills. It was a place they used for a good period of time.”
Lt Col Solomon said the military worked with members of the Sons of Iraq to locate the house. Sons of Iraq is a phrase often used by the military to describe US-funded Sunni tribesman who are now fighting al-Qaida.
