Bombs kill at least 80 people in Iraq

By BUSHRA JUHI, Associated Press 1 hour, 8 minutes ago

Thunderous explosions and dense black smoke swirled through central Baghdad on Monday when two car bombs tore through a crowded marketplace, setting off secondary blasts and killing at least 71 people, police said. Another bombing nearby killed at least nine.

The violence came on the first anniversary, according to the Muslim lunar calendar, of the bombing of the important Shiite Golden Dome shrine in Samarra, north of the capital. That attack by al-Qaida in Iraq militants set off the torrent of sectarian bloodletting that has turned Baghdad and much of central Iraq into a battleground.

A column of smoke hundreds of feet wide billowed 1,000 feet above the market near the east bank of the Tigris River and the Central Bank.

Ambulances and pickup trucks rushed many of the nearly 165 wounded to nearby al-Kindi hospital in the largely Shiite region that has been hit by a series of deadly bombings since Jan. 1.

The worst carnage occurred about 12:25 p.m. when two parked car bombs exploded shortly after the government called for a 15-minute period of commemoration for the Feb. 22 Samarra bombing.

The bombs struck within a minute of each other, targeting two buildings about 200 yards apart. One of the cars was parked near the entrance to a parking garage under one of the buildings.

Shops and stalls were obliterated and billowing smoke blackened the entire area on a sunny day in Baghdad.

Debris and clothing mannequins were scattered in pools of blood on the floor of the warehouse-type building while men tossed plastic chairs onto piles. Two men carried a limp body, while small fires burned in rubble outside the building.

Mohammed Najaim, whose shop was set ablaze, said one of the cars was parked in a garage under a two-story market called Al-Arabi, next to the Iraqi central bank. Najaim said flames were coming out of the garage, which holds hundreds of cars.

About a half-hour earlier, a bomb hidden in a bag exploded in a crowded area near a popular falafel takeout restaurant in the Bab al-Sharqi area, not far from Shorja, police said, adding that 19 people also were wounded in that blast.

The attacks, which occurred in busy market districts on the east side of the Tigris River, came despite stepped up security in the capital as U.S. and Iraqi forces have launched a new operation aimed at stopping the sectarian violence that has been on the rise since the Samarra bombing.

The anniversary fell on Monday according to the Islamic lunar calendar. The lunar month is never longer than 30 days or shorter than 29. The beginning of each lunar month is set by religious authorities.

One 38-year-old Shiite man said the blasts were clearly timed to coincide with the commemoration of the Samarra bombing. Other people in the area screamed, "Where is the government?" "Where is the security plan?" and "We have had enough!"

Some storekeepers were trying to salvage merchandise. Police and soldiers were deployed in force, and armed men in civilian clothes were searching and questioning people coming to the scene.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, some roads and bridges were cordoned off after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called for the 15-minute commemoration of the bombing in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.

Al-Maliki called on government offices and all citizens to "chant `God is great' in all the mosques, and to ring bells in all the churches" for the Samarra anniversary.

"The explosion of the holy shrine pushed the country into blind violence, in which tens of thousands of innocents were killed. No one knows but Allah when this tragedy will be over," Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, said in a statement issued before the bombings.

Al-Sistani urged the government to rebuild the shrine, whose golden dome was partially damaged. The compound has since been locked and guarded by police.

He also called for restraint among those observing the anniversary.

"We call on the believers to express their emotions but to be cautious and act disciplined, and not to do anything to hurt our brothers the Sunnis, as they are not responsible for this awful crime," he said.

About 16,000 demonstrators flooded the main street of Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, marching toward two Shiite shrines there. Participants rallied with placards reading, "No to terrorism" and "Iraqis are one people, whether Shiite or Sunni."

Hundreds of policemen guarded the area, and no violence was reported.

Muqtada al-Sadr, the anti-American cleric who commands one of Iraq's most notorious Shiite militias, the Mahdi Army, was scheduled to speak to supporters in the holy city of Najaf later Monday.

The United Nations reported that 34,452 civilians were killed in 2006 alone in violence that has left Iraq battered and divided along sectarian lines.

On Monday, President Jalal Talabani called the shrine bombing "a crime against humanity and Islam together."

"This horrible crime drives us to toward more solidarity and brotherhood," Talabani said in a speech in Baghdad. "We will stay with you until we accomplish a secured, democratic, federal and stable Iraq away from the darkness of terrorism, dictatorship."