Scores Killed in Twin Baghdad Blasts

BAGHDAD, March 7 -- Two bombs blew up in quick succession along a commercial street in central Baghdad on Thursday, killing scores of people in the deadliest attack in the capital in more than a month.

Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Mousawi, an Iraqi military spokesman, said Friday morning that 42 people had died in the two blasts, according to statistics provided by the Iraqi Health Ministry. U.S. military officials put the death toll slightly lower, at 39, while wire service reports quoted unnamed Iraqi police officials as saying 68 were dead. Of the estimated 120 people who were wounded in the blasts, 90 had left the hospital by Friday morning, Mousawi said.

In the northern city of Mosul, a suicide car bomb attack at a police station on Friday left four people dead and 33 injured. The Reuters news service said three of those killed were police officers, and the fourth was a young girl. Two roadside bombs planted near a police officer's house in the same city left one person dead and 14 wounded, said Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem al-Jubouri, a local police commander.

Thursday's explosions were timed to coincide with the rush of early evening shoppers along al-Attar street in the commercial district of Karrada, a predominantly Shiite neighborhood and normally one of the safer areas in Baghdad. Some Iraqi officials described the devices as roadside bombs while others said they were car bombs. The U.S. military said one of the explosions may have been a suicide attack.

The second blast occurred around 7 p.m., about 10 minutes after the first, as ambulances arrived and crowds gathered to haul off the wounded and dead. The bombings underscored the threats that persist in Baghdad. Even though these types of attacks have become more irregular in recent months, they are still an ever-present risk for residents of the capital. The twin bombings were the deadliest attack since two suicide bombers struck at pet markets Feb. 1 and killed almost 100 people.

While Thursday's bombings are still under investigation, the location and method of the attack suggest they could be the work of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq.

"A lot of innocent people were killed tonight," said Walaa Ahmed Ali, 27, who owns al-Nassir barbershop near al-Attar street. "They are targeting us because they believe we are infidels -- that we are going to hell and they are going to heaven when they kill us. They are brainwashed."

For more than an hour and a half after the bombings, ambulance crews and police officers, in cars and on motorcycles, worked to ferry the wounded to nearby hospitals. U.S. soldiers arrived after the Iraqi security forces and helped secure the area.

Ali said one of his regular customers, a 25-year-old man, was killed shortly after he came in for a haircut. After returning home for a shower, the man went back out to walk along al-Attar.

"We tried to reach him on his phone but we failed," he said. "Then his family realized something happened to him." They found his corpse at Ibn al-Nafis hospital.

"They chose this time to do their ugly crime because it's Thursday and a lot of people go to Karrada for shopping" before the Friday holiday, Ali said.

Special correspondent Dlovan Brwari contributed to this report from near Mosul.