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3 Coordinated Bombings Kill 28 In Baghdad

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The New York Times

Published: November 11, 2008

BAGHDAD - A synchronized triple bombing in northern Baghdad killed 28 people early Monday, an Interior Ministry official said, which would make it the deadliest attack in Baghdad since June, when a car bombing killed 51.

The bombers struck a main street of a mixed Sunni and Shiite neighborhood in the Adhamiya district about 8:15 a.m., when the street was bustling with street cleaners and commuters heading to work.

Bombs planted in two parked cars exploded about five minutes apart, an Interior Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. As a crowd gathered in the chaos, a suicide bomber darted into its midst and detonated his explosives.

Two local hospitals reported that 49 people were brought in for treatment, some with serious wounds. The Interior Ministry said 68 had been wounded.

The U.S. military later reported much lower casualty figures: seven killed and 35 wounded. Such discrepancies are not uncommon in the hours after a violent attack.

The bombings, along with a suicide attack in Baqouba on Monday, seem to be part of an increase in violence after a relatively quiet few weeks here. On Sunday, at least 12 Iraqis were killed in a spate of attacks, many of them in provinces outside Baghdad where Iraqi-led security operations had recently taken place. On Saturday, at least 11 people were killed in attacks in Baghdad and Anbar province.

The Associated Press counted at least 19 bombings in Baghdad this month as of Sunday, compared with 28 for all of October and 22 in September. At least 44 people were killed in Baghdad bombings from Nov. 1 to Sunday, compared with 95 for October and 96 in September, AP found.

An hour after the blasts in Baghdad on Monday, shattered glass and pools of blood covered the street between two large restaurants.

One sold shawarma sandwiches, a popular snack, and chunks of grilled meat were strewn across the road, along with burst canisters of cooking gas.

A broken sewer pipe leaked murky water, and a municipal bus was badly damaged, its white plastic seats splashed with blood.

Ganiya Kareem, 60, who had been walking with her grandson, a toddler, said she had seen "a bus turned into a lump of coal."

Hamza Abdul Kareem, 37, an army sergeant, said that until Monday his neighborhood had been "peaceful and beautiful." That morning, he said, he saw a young mother sitting in the bus with a baby in her arms, both dead.

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