A car bomb and several mortars ripped through central Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 27 people and wounding 101 others, police sources said. The car bomb in the shopping district of Karrada heavily damaged a building, raising fears the death toll could rise, Interior Ministry sources said. The mortars landed nearby.
Although there have been bombings in Karrada before, the mostly Shia area has been one of the few relatively stable districts of the capital. Nineteen bodies with bullet holes and showing signs of torture were found in different areas of Baghdad on Thursday.
US and Iraqi forces have been focusing their efforts on stabilising Baghdad, racked by car bombs, suicide bombers and kidnappings. The trial of ousted leader Saddam Hussein, whose loyalists are leading the insurgency against Maliki's government, was adjourned on Thursday until October 16 when a verdict, that can carry the death penalty, is expected to be delivered.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told the US congress on Wednesday Iraq would "be the grave of terrorism and terrorists". But the violence has not relented and Thursday's blasts left a familiar scene of chaos in the Iraqi capital.
Inside a tailor shop destroyed by the bomb, people tried to pull a young man from beneath a collapsed ceiling. A boy of about 10 with a bloodied head lay on the floor a few feet away.
"My sister is there. My sister is there," one woman said to a man holding her hand. "She is probably alright." Hassan Kufi, one victim, was hours away from getting married on Thursday. There were no festivities, just his funeral.
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