Iraq's prime minister vowed on Saturday that improved security would not be derailed after two female bombers killed 99 people in the deadliest attacks in Baghdad since last April.
Nuri al-Maliki said Friday's bombings at popular pet markets in the capital would not herald a return to the savage violence that took Iraq to the brink of all-out sectarian civil war. The US military blamed al Qaeda in Iraq for the attacks.
"I swear on the blood (of the victims), we will achieve all our goals in securing a stable Iraq. We will continue to ... crush the terrorists and target their strongholds," Maliki said in a statement. But as grieving relatives buried those killed, angry residents said the government should do more to protect them.
"The security forces failed to secure this place and haven't found any solution for big Baghdad markets," said Abu Jasim, 42, who sells colourful fish at the Ghazil pet market in central Baghdad, where 62 people were killed and 88 wounded. The attack at Ghazil, one of the most popular meeting places in the city and a previous target for attacks, came just minutes after another female bomber killed 37 and wounded 57 at a bird market in southern Baghdad, police said.
Iraq's military has said the two women were mentally handicapped and the bombs were detonated by remote control. "The terrorists used handicapped women in this crime. This shows the moral degradation of these criminal gangs and how much they hate mankind," Maliki said.
US military officials said they had seen no evidence to suggest the women were handicapped, but one spokesman said on Saturday: "We don't have any reason to doubt that either". Al Qaeda in Iraq, blamed by the US military for most other large-scale bombings, has increasingly used women wearing suicide vests to carry out strikes after increased security and protective concrete walls made car bombings more difficult. Friday's death toll was the worst in Baghdad since April 18, when multiple car bombings killed 191 people around the city.
SHATTERED CONFIDENCE: The scale of the devastation could shatter growing confidence amongst Iraqis that their streets are safer. Ra'eed Hussain, 34, takes his young son every Friday to the Ghazil market but did not go this week because he was feeling sick. He said he would not return until security improved.
"We need really thorough checks, especially of women wearing black abayas who could hide something underneath," said Hussain, referring to black robes that many older women in Iraq wear. The attacks raise questions for the US military, which has begun to reduce troop levels following a big drop in violence. Attacks have fallen by 60 percent across Iraq since last June, when 30,000 extra US troops became fully deployed.
Troop levels will fall to around 135,000 by the middle of the year when more than 20,000 combat soldiers are withdrawn. There are currently around 150,000 US troops in Iraq. US commanders say they will have enough soldiers to maintain security. But they have repeatedly warned that Sunni Islamist al Qaeda remain a dangerous foe.
The fall in overall violence has also been attributed to local police units mainly made up of Sunni Arab tribes who turned against al Qaeda and a cease-fire by the feared Mehdi Army militia of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
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