Bombs kill 54 and wound 123 in Baghdad
Two bombs that struck a busy shopping district in Baghdad Thursday evening, turned display windows, cabinets, and glass shelves into deadly shards of shrapnel, killing 54 and wounding 123. The attack in the Karada neighborhood was the worst in the capital city since February, when bombings killed almost 100 hundred people in two pet markets, and it reinforced that insurgents could still carry out deadly attacks in well guarded areas. While the violence has declined sharply since last year, the last two weeks have been the most violent in Baghdad.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, yet it was done using old tactics. One bomb was detonated and then while civilians and emergency workers rushed into help, another bomb was detonated. The explosions sprayed chunks of human flesh for 50 yards. The second bomb, which went off around 10 minutes after the first, was deadlier. Iraqi police and soldiers were among the dead and wounded.
Some witness’s claim the first bomb was hidden in a trash can, while the second bomb may have been detonated from the vest of a suicide bomber. One witness said that one bomb was carried in by a man on a motorcycle while another said it had been previously planted. In the chaos that followed the attacks, police fired AK’s into the air to scare people away but many people still rushed forward to look for family members feared dead.
In other violence reported on Thursday, insurgents struck in the north, killing one guard and wounding another at Badoosh Prison with an improvised bomb.
This particular event is pretty horrific. It reminded me of the Omagh bombing in 1998, in Northern Ireland. One bomb went off and while survivors were helping the victims, another bomb went off right where they were.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/07/world/middleeast/07iraq.html?ref=middleeast
1 comment:
What's the deal with bombs? What is the UN doing about it?
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