IRAQ - Feb 12 - Bombs Kills At Least 76 In Baghdad.

Bomb attacks at crowded markets in central Baghdad kill at least 76 people as Iraqis marked the first anniversary of a Shi'ite shrine bombing that pitched the country to the brink of civil war. The blasts comes a day after Shi'ite PM Nuri al-Maliki said Iraqi security forces would step up their deployment in Baghdad under a US-backed offensive against militants. In the deadliest attack, at least 71 people were killed and 164 wounded in the popular Shorja wholesale market. An Interior Ministry spokesman said three car bombs exploded in quick succession. However, Major-General Abdul Rasool al-Zaidi from the Civil Defence Authority told Iraqiya state television the carnage was caused by five roadside bombs that blew up simultaneously around a multi-storey building. Huge clouds of black smoke and flames belched from the building, which houses wholesale clothing merchants, turning a cloudless day into night in the debris-strewn street. The blasts echoed across Baghdad and reduced market stalls to mangled wrecks. People with wooden carts carried badly wounded survivors with bandaged legs, arms and heads. Some 75 cars were destroyed. "I saw three bodies shredded apart. Paramedics were picking up body pieces and human flesh from the pools of blood on the ground and placing them in small plastic bags", said witness Wathiq Ibrahim. "The smoke turned the place dark". The Interior Ministry spokesman, also speaking on Iraqiya television, said three suspects had been arrested. One old woman cursed Maliki's government. "They've killed all our sons. What have they left for us?" she shouted. Maliki, a Shi'ite Islamist, has pledged the Baghdad crackdown will target militants regardless of their sect. The security plan, which follows previous failed attempts to halt daily bombings and death squad killings in the capital, is seen as a last-ditch effort to avert all-out civil war between majority Shi'ites and Sunni Arabs. A separate roadside bomb attack at the Bab al-Sharji market, also in central Baghdad and home to Sunni Arab and Shi'ite traders, killed at least five people, police sources said. The Shorja market, one of the city's oldest and a key supplier for countless small shops scattered across the capital, has been bombed frequently.