Bombs rip through ‘secure’ Baghdad

Two car bombs exploded in an outdoor market in Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 56 people and injuring scores in the deadliest attack since US and Iraqi forces began a major security push around the capital last week.

Two car bombs exploded in an outdoor market in Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 56 people and injuring scores in the deadliest attack since US and Iraqi forces began a major security push around the capital last week.

The twin blasts — which tore through the open-air market in the mostly Shi’ite district of New Baghdad —marked the first major response by militants to the sweep launched last week and a sobering reminder of the huge challenges facing any efforts to rattle the well-armed factions.

No official casualty figures were immediately announced and local media reports on the overall tally varied.

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The explosions toppled wooden vendors’ stalls and utility poles, and blood pooled in the debris. Victims were carried into hospitals on makeshift stretchers or in the arms of rescuers.

A separate car bomb in the mostly Shi’ite area of Sadr City killed at least one person and injured 10, police said.

In Baghdad, US and Iraqi forces expanded their network of checkpoints and moved search teams into new neighbourhoods to seek weapons and suspected militant leaders. But the more difficult goal was convincing nervous residents that the more aggressive policing could be a genuine sign of hope.

In past security drives, militants simply held back while soldiers pushed through and then returned to their campaigns of bombings and attacks. On Thursday, seven civilians were killed in a series of car bombs on the first full day of the security operation.

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“The Baghdad security plan is very important to push Iraq ahead,” said Haider al-Obadi, a parliament member from the Dawa party of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

On Saturday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told al-Maliki that the security push needs to “rise above sectarianism” and tackle both Sunni and Shi’ite districts in order to be credible, said an Iraqi official.

Sunni officials have complained that the troops are concentrating on Sunni areas and have avoided Shi’ite strongholds in the city, including the Mahdi Army hotbed of Sadr City.

Rice also urged al-Maliki not to squander the relative calm in the capital since the security operation got under way. “None of us knows the full story of precisely what the militias are doing,” Rice said. “But if there is a diminution in the violence as a result, if they have decided that they are not going to challenge the Baghdad security plan, then the use of that time for good purposes could make the situation much more stable.”