Baghdad bombs kill 55 people

Two large bombs exploded within a few minutes of each other in a crowded Baghdad shopping area today, killing 55 people.

Police said a roadside bomb exploded on a commercial street in the central Karrada district where street vendors gather to sell their wares and which many people visit today at the start of the Muslim weekend.

Minutes later, after Iraqi security forces and other people had gathered following the initial blast, a suicide bomber detonated a second device, police said. It was one of the bloodiest days in the capital in recent months, since extra US troops were sent to Iraq to quell raging sectarian violence and US commanders embraced new counter-insurgency tactics.

Dozens of shops were damaged and at least 12 ambulances had raced to the area. The US military said it did not have accurate figures for casualties as its soldiers had arrived on the scene after the wounded had been taken away.

On Monday, two bomb blasts in central and eastern Baghdad killed 19 people, despite an increase in security for the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Last month two women killed 99 people when they detonated explosives in packed markets last month, the bloodiest bombings in the Iraqi capital since last April.

US troop out
The US military said earlier today that about
2 000 US soldiers were being withdrawn from Baghdad as part of a planned reduction of US forces in Iraq. The 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, was part of the extra
30 000 soldiers sent last year to stop sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims that took the country to the brink of civil war.

However, since the extra troops became fully deployed in mid-2007, violence has dropped by 60%, prompting General David Petraeus, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, to announce that five of 20 brigades would be pulled out by July 2008. - Reuters