Suspected insurgents set off two bombs in a main square of central Baghdad where scores of Iraqis were waiting for jobs as day labourers on Tuesday, killing at least 70 people and wounding more than 235, police said.
The carefully coordinated attack in Tayaran Square at 7am local time involved a parked car bomb and a suicide attacker who drove up in a minibus, pretended to hire day labourers and then setting off his explosive as they got into his vehicle, said police Lieutenant Bilal Ali.
He said at least 57 Iraqis, including seven police officers, were killed in the attack and 151 people wounded.
The simultaneous explosions, which occurred about 30m apart, set fire to least 10 other cars in the area, Ali said.
Gunfire also could be heard as survivors fled the scene, but it was not immediately known if that involved a police checkpoint in the area or insurgent snipers hiding nearby, said Ali.
In Baghdad, where many people are unemployed, scores of Iraqis gather in the square early in the morning to wait for minibuses or private cars that stop by and hire them for the day as construction workers, cleaners or painters. Nearby, small stands are set up to sell the labourers a breakfast of egg sandwiches and tea.
Khalil Ibrahim (41), a shop owner, said: ”In the first explosion, I saw people falling over, some of them blown apart. When the other bomb went off seconds later, it slammed me into a wall of my store and I fainted.” He was speaking from a local hospital where he had been taken to be treated for shrapnel wounds to his head and back.
Tayaran Square is located near several government ministries and a bridge that crosses the Tigris River to the heavily fortified Green Zone, where Iraq’s Parliament and the United States and British embassies are located.
About 2,5km away, two roadside bombs targeting Iraqi police patrols also exploded at 8.25am and 8.40am local time, wounding two police officers and seven Iraqi civilians, said police Captain Mohammed Abdul-Ghani. Both loud explosions could be heard in Tayaran Square.
Iraq is gripped by tit-for-tat sectarian killings between majority Shi’ites and Sunni Arabs who were once dominant under Saddam Hussein.
A car bomb devastated a fruit and vegetable market in Baghdad on December 2, killing at least 51 people. In the worst attack since the US invasion, more than 200 people were killed on November 3 in multiple car bombings in the Shi’ite district of Sadr City. — Sapa-AP, Reuters