February 11, 2009 5:27 PM
- Text
Deadly Day Claims 100 Iraqis
(CBS/AP)
Three bombs claimed the lives of as many as 100 Iraqis Monday and left almost 200 injured.
Two nearly simultaneous bombs struck a predominantly Shiite commercial area in central Baghdad, killing at least 100 people and wounding at least 200, said Iraqi officials.
It was the deadliest day in Baghdad in two months, reports CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan. At the hospital, the cries of distraught relatives filled the air while bodies overflowed onto the ground outside. It was yet another ruthless attack on Iraq's Shiites, clearly aimed at pushing the country deeper into civil war.
Hours later, a bomb followed by a mortar attack struck a market in a predominantly Shiite town north of Baghdad, killing at least 12 people and wounding nearly 30, police said.
The bomb exploded in the early evening near the main market in Khalis, 50 miles north of the capital, and a mortar shell struck the same area about five minutes later, according to the information bureau for the volatile Diyala province. It said 12 civilians were killed and 29 were wounded.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, reported the deaths of two Marines at the end of a particularly bloody weekend for American forces in Iraq.
CBS News correspondent Scott Pelley reports that two very large bombs exploded at the Shiite market at about noon, during one of the busiest times in that market, indicating the blasts were targeting civilians.
The first blast occurred when a bomb left in a bag placed among the stalls of vendors peddling DVDs and secondhand clothes exploded in the Bab al-Sharqi area between Tayaran and Tahrir squares — one of the busiest parts of Baghdad. It was followed almost immediately by a parked car bomb just a few yards away.
A CBS News camera tapes the Baghdad skyline continuously and caught the explosions — which appear initially as two white puffs of smoke but quickly turn a more acrid black as fuel and debris burns.
The explosions left body parts strewn on the bloodstained pavement, along with DVDs and compact discs as black smoke rose into the sky. Iraqi police sealed off the area as ambulances rushed to the scene to evacuate the victims.
The wounded were taken to nearby al-Kindi Hospital where emergency personnel worked feverishly over the bloodied and badly wounded survivors.
A suicide bomber killed at least 63 people in the same region last month.
The explosions came hours after gunmen killed a female teacher as she was on her way to work at a girls' school in the mainly Sunni area of Khadra in western Baghdad, police said, adding that the teacher's driver was wounded in the drive-by shooting.
Later, two mortar shells slammed into a primary school in Dora, the dangerous south Baghdad neighborhood, killing a woman who was waiting to take her child home. Eight students were wounded, police said.
The two U.S. Marines were killed Sunday in separate attacks in Anbar Province, an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, the military said. The deaths came a day after 25 U.S. troops were killed Saturday in the third-deadliest day since the war started in March 2003 — eclipsed only by the one-day toll 37 U.S. fatalities on Jan. 26, 2005, and 28 on the third day of the U.S. invasion.
In other developments:
An al Qaeda-linked coalition of Iraqi Sunni insurgents claimed Monday that its fighters shot down an American military helicopter in a crash that killed 12 U.S. soldiers. The U.S. military has said the cause of the crash has not been determined. The insurgent coalition, the Islamic State in Iraq, posted the claim on an Islamic Web site, saying that "the lions of Iraq's Islamic state managed to down a Black Hawk on Saturday, which was followed by a clash with the Crusaders, and that led to the destruction of two Humvees and the annihilation of those inside, thanks be to God."
The names haven't been released yet, but two Army colonels were killed aboard the Black Hawk, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin. A launch tube for a shoulder-fired missile was found near where the Black Hawk went down, adds Martin. Even though they found the tube, they have not officially concluded the helicopter was shot down.
The Washington Post reported Monday that a brazen attack on U.S. troops in southwest Iraq which left five soldiers dead was carried out by insurgents cleverly disguised to look like American officials in armored sports utility vehicles.
Al Qaeda's deputy leader mocked President Bush's plan to send 21,000 more troops to Iraq, challenging him to send "the entire army" and vowing insurgents will defeat them in a new videotape, a U.S. group that tracks al Qaeda messages said Monday.
Congressional Republicans pushed back Monday against President Bush's decision to increase U.S. troop strength in Iraq, some voicing opposition while others urged holding the administration and Iraqi government more accountable for the war effort.
Two nearly simultaneous bombs struck a predominantly Shiite commercial area in central Baghdad, killing at least 100 people and wounding at least 200, said Iraqi officials.
It was the deadliest day in Baghdad in two months, reports CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan. At the hospital, the cries of distraught relatives filled the air while bodies overflowed onto the ground outside. It was yet another ruthless attack on Iraq's Shiites, clearly aimed at pushing the country deeper into civil war.
Hours later, a bomb followed by a mortar attack struck a market in a predominantly Shiite town north of Baghdad, killing at least 12 people and wounding nearly 30, police said.
The bomb exploded in the early evening near the main market in Khalis, 50 miles north of the capital, and a mortar shell struck the same area about five minutes later, according to the information bureau for the volatile Diyala province. It said 12 civilians were killed and 29 were wounded.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, reported the deaths of two Marines at the end of a particularly bloody weekend for American forces in Iraq.
CBS News correspondent Scott Pelley reports that two very large bombs exploded at the Shiite market at about noon, during one of the busiest times in that market, indicating the blasts were targeting civilians.
The first blast occurred when a bomb left in a bag placed among the stalls of vendors peddling DVDs and secondhand clothes exploded in the Bab al-Sharqi area between Tayaran and Tahrir squares — one of the busiest parts of Baghdad. It was followed almost immediately by a parked car bomb just a few yards away.
A CBS News camera tapes the Baghdad skyline continuously and caught the explosions — which appear initially as two white puffs of smoke but quickly turn a more acrid black as fuel and debris burns.
The explosions left body parts strewn on the bloodstained pavement, along with DVDs and compact discs as black smoke rose into the sky. Iraqi police sealed off the area as ambulances rushed to the scene to evacuate the victims.
The wounded were taken to nearby al-Kindi Hospital where emergency personnel worked feverishly over the bloodied and badly wounded survivors.
A suicide bomber killed at least 63 people in the same region last month.
The explosions came hours after gunmen killed a female teacher as she was on her way to work at a girls' school in the mainly Sunni area of Khadra in western Baghdad, police said, adding that the teacher's driver was wounded in the drive-by shooting.
Later, two mortar shells slammed into a primary school in Dora, the dangerous south Baghdad neighborhood, killing a woman who was waiting to take her child home. Eight students were wounded, police said.
The two U.S. Marines were killed Sunday in separate attacks in Anbar Province, an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, the military said. The deaths came a day after 25 U.S. troops were killed Saturday in the third-deadliest day since the war started in March 2003 — eclipsed only by the one-day toll 37 U.S. fatalities on Jan. 26, 2005, and 28 on the third day of the U.S. invasion.
In other developments:
The names haven't been released yet, but two Army colonels were killed aboard the Black Hawk, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin. A launch tube for a shoulder-fired missile was found near where the Black Hawk went down, adds Martin. Even though they found the tube, they have not officially concluded the helicopter was shot down.
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Scott Conroy Scott Conroy is a National Political Reporter for RealClearPolitics and a contributor for CBS News.
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