World

Car Bombs Rip Baghdad Market

January 27, 2007 / 8:03 AM EST / CBS/AP

Two car bombs in quick succession struck a market in a mainly Shiite district in Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 13 people and wounding more than 40, police said.

The attack began about 12:15 p.m. in New Baghdad in the eastern half of the capital when a suicide car bomber plowed into the busy commercial area. A parked car bomb exploded shortly afterward as people converged on the area to help the victims or see what had happened — a common tactic in the relentless attacks by suspected Sunni insurgents.

Elsewhere, U.S. airstrikes killed 14 terror suspects and destroyed a foreign fighter safe house during a raid south of Baqouba that also led to the capture of two other suspects, the military said.

The military said the raid was targeting an unidentified foreign fighter believed responsible for multiple attacks on Iraqi and coalition forces in the area. U.S. and Iraqi forces have been battling Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias for months in the area around Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

The blast that struck the New Baghdad area on Saturday took place at a major intersection in the area, which is lined with stores and kiosks selling food, clothes and household appliances and usually has a heavy police presence. The 13 killed included two policemen, while four officers were among the 42 wounded, according to police reports.

The burned-out hulks of cars and vans in the area and a bag of fruit were left among pieces of metal scattered on the ground. Men carrying children and women shrouded in black rushed to the hospital.

"I was on the opposite side of the explosion, which took place about 200 meters (yards) away, followed quickly by another explosion," said Farooq Haitham, the 33-year-old owner of a watch repair shop, which sits near a long-closed movie theater. "A fire broke out at the site so we hurried with others to help as civilian cars carried victims to the hospital."

He said the area had been targeted by many bombings in the past but shopkeepers had no choice but to keep opening their doors.

"This area has witnessed many explosions, but what can we do? We want to live, our need for money forces us to come again and work," Haitham said.

It was the latest in a series of explosions against commercial targets this week, killing some 150 people since Sunday and signaling a tough battle ahead as U.S. and Iraqi forces gear up for a planned security operation to pacify the capital.

The biggest of those attacks was on Monday when a suicide car bomber crashed into a market in the central neighborhood of Bab al-Sharqi, killing 88 people in the deadliest attack in two months.

On Friday, a bomb struck a busy pet and livestock market, killing at least 15 people, wounding 66 and shattering the calm as Baghdad residents strolled past stalls where sellers were peddling birds, dogs, cats, sheep, goats and exotic animals such as snakes and monkeys.

That strike came as U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Baghdad and met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — a clear sign the newly empowered Democratic Congress is not going to abide by the notion that foreign policy is the sole province of the White House.

In an interview with The Politico, Pelosi says President Bush never asked for her input on Iraq before announcing a build-up of American forces in Iraq.

Pelosi has been a sharp critic of the administration's conduct of the war and has led a drive in Congress against his decision to send 21,500 more troops.

"We stressed our belief that it is well past time for the Iraqis to take primary responsibility for the security of their nation," Pelosi said in a statement after she and the other six members of her delegation met with the prime minister and top U.S. officials in Baghdad.

"The delegation's view is that American forces should quickly begin to transition from a combat role to one focused on training, counterterrorism, force protection and controlling Iraq's borders," she said — in direct challenge to Bush's decision to add more troops.

Many in Congress have accused the Shiite leader of foot-dragging and have challenged his capability to quell the sectarian violence tearing apart his country.

In Other Developments:

The U.S. military reported Saturday that two American soldiers were killed during operations in dangerous Diyala province northeast of Baghdad. Military statements said both victims died Friday. One soldier belonged to Task Force Lightning and was assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. The second was a Multi-National Corps-Iraq soldier attached to North Division. The soldiers' names were withheld until family could be notified.

On Saturday, at least one rocket struck Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, and two people suffered minor injuries, U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said, as a U.S. government public address system could be heard warning people to "duck and cover" and to stay away from windows. The blast sent a plume of smoke into the air and thundered across central Baghdad shortly before sunset, about the same time as Thursday's rocket attack on the Green Zone, the site of the U.S. and British embassies, the Iraqi government and thousands of American troops. Six people were wounded, none seriously, in that attack.

On Saturday armed men in commando uniforms driving cars with license plates commonly used by the Interior Ministry stormed a computer company and kidnapped seven people, including shoppers, in the mainly Christian neighborhood of Sina'a.

Two mortar shells also slammed into a residential district in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Hurriyah, killing two people and wounding seven others.

A taxi driver was shot to death after he was caught in the crossfire during clashes in the northern city of Mosul.

The bodies of five men also were pulled from the Tigris River in Suwayrah, 25 miles south of Baghdad, according to a morgue official. Bodies are found regularly floating in the river downstream — sometimes scores in a single day — most of them believed to have been abducted and killed by sectarian death squads.