Baghdad market bomb 'kills 102'

Seven bombs go off in Kirkuk in further Iraqi violence
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Last Updated: Saturday, 3 February 2007, 15:39 GMT

Baghdad market bomb 'kills 102'

The attack took place in central al-Sadriya district At least 102 people have been killed and 215 injured in a lorry bombing at a market place in Baghdad, Iraqi security officials have said. The attack, the worst this year, took place at the market in central al-Sadriya district. Earlier, a series of car bombs exploded in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing five people and injuring 40 others. The Iraqi violence continues despite a new US initiative that will see an extra 21,500 troops deployed. The BBC's Mike Wooldridge in Baghdad says police sources are now correcting initial reports of a suicide attack at the market and say the lorry had been parked. The attack is the worst this year - 88 people died in the bombing of the Haraj market on 22 January. Only the co-ordinated bombings in Baghdad's Sadr City in November, which killed more than 200 people, caused more deaths. Markets, with their increased potential for casualties, have become a regular target for bombers over recent months. 'Destabilising' In the Kirkuk attacks, seven bombs - one said to be a suicide blast - went off in different parts of the ethnically mixed city over a two-hour period. Seven bombs also went off in Kirkuk in the north Two of the bombs targeted the headquarters of two Kurdish parties - the Kurdish Democratic Party led by of Massoud Barzani, head of the northern Kurdish region, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, headed by Iraq's President, Jalal Talabani. Others hit a petrol station, Kirkuk's commercial district and several other locations, reports said. Razqar Ali, a Kurdish leader and head of Kirkuk provincial council, accused militants of trying to destabilise the city amid efforts by some Kurds to include it in the autonomous Kurdish region. A curfew was imposed after the blasts and would run from 1600 (1300 GMT) to 0600 on Sunday, AFP news agency said. Earlier, police said gunmen attacked a checkpoint near Samarra, killing six police and injuring another six. Samarra is a mainly Sunni town 125km (80 miles) north of Baghdad where an attack on an important Shia shrine last February sparked Iraq's current sectarian violence.