Bombings End Lull In Iraqi Capital

Dozens Killed By Attacks in Commercial Area

BAGHDAD, Feb. 18 -- After a brief respite from carnage in Baghdad, the city's skyline on Sunday once again featured a robust, gray cloud billowing slowly from a devastated commercial area that had been bombed numerous times before.

Two car bombs, placed a few blocks apart in the New Baghdad neighborhood of the capital, exploded in quick succession at 3:30 p.m. An Iraqi official put the preliminary death toll at 40. Other officials quoted by Iraqi television and news services said that at least 60 people were killed and more than 100 injured.

"It was complete devastation," said Abu Noor, 40, a calligrapher who was in his third-story apartment in the commercial district when he heard the blasts. "You could see people melting in their cars."

Some residents wondered whether the latest bombings were a response from insurgents to reports from Iraqi officials that a newly launched Baghdad security plan had gained a foothold in this battered city.

"Those people might be challenging the security plan," said Faris Salman, 30, a mechanic who works at one of the many spare-parts shops in the targeted area. "They are showing that they have the strength, that they are able to target innocent and poor people. As long as you say we are successful with the security plan, we are also showing we are successful in killing innocent people."

The bombing was the most lethal attack in the country since the security plan was officially launched Wednesday, and it came as thousands of troops, including many American soldiers, are being deployed to inner-city security stations. The plan, designed by Iraqi officials, was intended to make the country inhospitable to violent extremist groups by stepping up patrols in neighborhoods, cracking down on unlawfully possessed weapons and tightening security along Iraq's borders.

The first bomb exploded across the street from the Baiydhaa movie theater, a once-popular cinema where projectors have not been turned on for months.

Salman had just finished working on two cars when the shock wave from the blast hurled him to the ground.

"I stood and I saw the chaos," he said. Then he noticed blood streaming from his left shoulder and waist.

He staggered to a nearby school, where his uncle works as a security guard. The two men took a cab to Ibn al-Nafis Hospital, where emergency room doctors dashed from patient to patient, leaving bloody footprints on the floor, Salman said.

The second bomb exploded about 100 yards away, in a narrow street dotted with appliance stores that caught fire. Abbas Hadi, 42, a travel agent, was in a minibus on his way home from work when he felt "the earth shaking" under his seat.

"It was raining things and metal parts," he said.