Triple bombings just the latest in uptick of violence in Baghdad

Last update: November 10, 2008 - 11:01 PM

BAGHDAD - A synchronized triple bombing in northern Baghdad killed 28 people early Monday, an Interior Ministry official said, which would make it the deadliest attack in Baghdad since June, when a car bombing killed 51.

The bombers struck a main street of a mixed Sunni and Shiite neighborhood in the Adhamiya district about 8:15 a.m., when commuters were heading to work.

Bombs planted in two parked cars exploded about five minutes apart, an Interior Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. As a crowd gathered in the chaos, a suicide bomber darted into its midst and detonated his explosives.

Two hospitals reported that 49 people had been brought in. The Interior Ministry said 68 had been hurt. The U.S. military later reported lower casualty figures: seven killed and 35 wounded.

The bombings, along with a suicide attack in Baqouba on Monday, seem to be part of an increase in violence after a relatively quiet few weeks. Sunday, at least 12 Iraqis were killed in attacks, outside Baghdad. Saturday, at least 11 people died in attacks in Baghdad and Anbar Province.

Police said the first bomb went off as a minibus passed by carrying young girls to school along a busy commercial street lined with shops and small restaurants popular with local people for breakfast.

Associated Press Television News video showed the vehicle riddled with shrapnel and the interior smeared with blood. Girls' shoes were scattered about the floor.

Police officials giving the toll were unclear how many died in each blast.

The blasts, which lasted 15 minutes, were timed to coincide with the breakfast rush at Abu Wael's restaurant. Policemen, laborers, merchants and students were eating eggs, meat and potato patties and drinking tea to start their day. Many didn't make it out of the restaurant.

"I rushed to the site and saw several girl students trapped in a bus and screaming for help," said Abbas Fadhil, 45, a restaurant worker.

"We took the girls outside the bus and rushed them to the hospitals," he said, standing in front of the damaged restaurant -- his white shirt soaked with blood.

The street where the booby-trapped car was parked had been blocked off by hip-high concrete barriers, but someone had moved the barriers to allow cars to pass to reach nearby shops.

North of Baghdad in Baqouba, a 13-year-old girl walked to a checkpoint of Sunni Muslim paramilitary members and detonated explosives. She killed herself and at least five others, including a leading member of the U.S.-backed paramilitary. At least 15 people were wounded.

In a central Baghdad hospital, Ahmed Abdul Kadr, 13, a day laborer, lay on a bed in the ground floor emergency room, his shorts caked with blood.

Ahmed said he had come to the capital from his home in Hilla, to the south. He found work as a ditch digger and was helping to excavate a stretch of pavement when the first blast knocked him flat.

"I was digging together with one man, but he died right there," Ahmed said. "My legs are filled with shrapnel, but I'll be all right. I'm going to go home for a while, but then I'll come to Baghdad and find another job."

NEW YORK TIMES

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