Bomb attacks kill 66 in downtown Baghdad on Samarra anniversary

Source: Xinhuanet | 02-13-2007 14:36

BAGHDAD, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Double car bombings and a homemade bomb ripped through popular Baghdad markets killed a total of 66 people and wounded 155 others on Monday, a well-informed police source said.

An Iraqi gestures as he shouts at the site where a car bomb exploded in central Baghdad. The death toll rose to at least 34 and 140 people wounded in double car bombings and a homemade bomb blasts in downtown Baghdad markets on Monday. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

The blasts shattered the downtown capital on the first anniversary, according to the Muslim calendar, of the bombing of the Shiite golden dome shrine in Samarra, 120 km north of Baghdad.

"The final death toll rose to 66 people killed and up to 155 others wounded in the two attacks," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

A simultaneous car bomb blasts went off around midday in the wholesale market of Shorjah, the source said.

"One car bomb was parking in front of the Kinani building and the other one was parking some 100 meters away," the source said. Plumes of gray smoke and two black columns rose over the area in central Baghdad.

The two blasts collapsed a building and set dozens of shops and

market stalls on fire.

Meanwhile, a homemade bomb exploded in the busy Haraj market in Baghdad's Bab al-Sharji area, the source added.

The attacks came as the Shiite government officials commemorated Monday the first anniversary under the Islamic calendar of the bombing of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra. The attack occurred on Feb. 22 last year.

For his part, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered Shiite cleric urged his followers not to Sunni people for the attack.

"We call on the believers on this sad occasion to exercise maximum levels of restraint and not to do or say anything which would harm our Sunni brothers who are innocent for what happened and who do not accept it," Sistani said in a statement.

Sistani blamed the extremist Sunni militants for the Samarra bombing, which plunged the country into a cycle of "blind violence."