Carnage in Baghdad

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Carnage in Baghdad

Suicide blast targets book market

Tue, March 6, 2007

http://winnipegsun.com/News/World/2007/03/06/3703107-sun.html

BAGHDAD --

A suicide car bomber turned a venerable book market into a deadly inferno
and gunmen targeted Shiite pilgrims yesterday in the Iraqi capital.

At least 38 people died in the blast and 105 injured and seven pilgrims were killed.


An Iraqi man stands amid the smoke and rubble just after
a suicide car bomber killed 28 people Monday in Baghdad


The suicide mission tore through booksellers and other stores on narrow Mutanabi Street,
a mostly Shiite-run commercial area in Baghdad's historical heart along the Tigris River.
Within seconds, flames engulfed open-air stalls and shops brimming with books.
Gas-powered generators exploded one by one.

Firefighters had to spray huge arches of water from blocks away because their trucks were
too large for the warren of lanes in old Baghdad. At least 38 people died and 105 were injured;
however, the final toll may not be clear until today.

Fire crews still battled the blazes more than 12 hours after the attack.

In other violence, gunmen opened fire on Shiite pilgrims in several places around Baghdad,
killing at least seven people. It was the bloodiest day in the capital in more than a week,
and came o the heels of a major push by 1,200 U.S. and Iraqi troops into teeming Sadr City
as part of a security offensive across Baghdad.

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