Death toll rises to 68 in Baghdad bombings, families mourn victims

Family members Friday mourned victims of a twin bombing in a packed Baghdad shopping district that killed at least 68 people and wounded 120, a grim reminder that Iraq's violence has slackened but not abated.

Funerals were held in the primarily Shiite, middle-class Baghdad neighborhood of Karradah, where the back-to-back bombings took place. Cleaning crews swept debris and cleaned blood from the site in the shopping and residential district. Shop owners inspected the damage.

Violence in Iraq continued Friday, when bombings in the northern city of Mosul, an al-Qaida in Iraq stronghold, killed at least four people and wounded at least 46, officials said.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for Thursday's shopping district attack. But the U.S. military blamed al-Qaida in Iraq.

"This was definitely AQI and we know who the cell leader is. He and his dogs are all targets," said military spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Stover.

Double bombings to maximize casualties have been a hallmark of al-Qaida in Iraq, which is responsible for killing thousands of people with such attacks. As in previous bombings, the tactic seeks to draw in people with the first blast — especially security, medical workers and other first responders — before a second bomb detonates.

Iraqis were enjoying a pleasant spring evening when the roadside bomb hidden under a vendor stall detonated. Five minutes later, a suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt detonated, Mohammed al-Rubaie, the head of the Karradah municipality, told the state-run Al-Iraqiya TV.

Interior Ministry officials said Friday that 68 people were killed and 120 injured after several people died from their injuries overnight.

Hassan Abdullah, 25, who owns a clothing shop in the area, said he was walking to the site of the first blast to see what happened when the second bomb went off.

"I saw a leg and a hand falling near me as I was walking. The whole place was a mess. Wounded people were crying for help, and people started to run away," he said. "The aim of such attacks is the random killing of as many people as possible in order to terrorize Iraqi people."

Many of the victims were teens or young adults, officials said.

At one funeral Friday, family members mourned the death of a 17-year-old Christian man. Several young men carried his wooden coffin out of his family's home and down the street as family members walked behind.

"I lost my son. It breaks my heart," said the man's father.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the attack Friday, calling it a "horrible crime."

"This crime reveals the rooted hatred of terrorists against the Iraqi people," a statement from his office said.

Violence has dropped substantially in Baghdad over the last half-year with the boost in U.S. troops, a cease-fire by a powerful Shiite militia, and many Sunni fighters turning against al-Qaida in Iraq. But multiple killings are still a daily occurrence.

A Bush administration official told the Associated Press last week that Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, will ask for a pause to assess the military situation after the currently planned drawdown of U.S. troops concludes in mid-July.

The idea will be to assess whether the security gains made in recent months can be maintained with lower troop levels. Although violence is down, about 700 Iraqis have been killed per month since November.

In a separate bombing Friday, an extremist attacked a police station in the northern city of Mosul, driving his explosives-laden car through protective barriers before detonating it outside the station's front gate, killing at least three and wounding 32, authorities said.

The U.S. military said two Iraqi police were killed and one civilian, and that 12 officers were among the wounded.

A local police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information, put the death toll at four, all officers, and the wounded at 33.

Mosul is the focus of a joint U.S.-Iraqi military campaign to force al-Qaida in Iraq out of what the military describes as its last major urban stronghold.

Also on Friday, a provincial police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity said twin bombings in central Mosul killed one person and injured 14 others.

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Associated Press writers Sameer N. Yacoub and Hamed Ahmed contributed to this report.