IRAQ - Feb 18 - 2 Car Bombs Kill At Least 60 In Baghdad Market.

Two days after PM Nuri Kamal al-Maliki calls the first days of the security crackdown in this capital city a "dazzling success", two car bombs tore through a crowded market and killed at least 60 people. The attack occurred only minutes after American soldiers passed through the area on patrol, underscoring the difficult nature of trying to quell violence on the streets of Baghdad, where car bombs have been an almost daily occurrence and suicide attacks directed at civilians so common that many of the markets have been closed to vehicle traffic in recent days. The blasts on Feb 18 occurred in the mostly Shi'ite neighbourhood of New Baghdad, devastating an open-air market, setting dozens of cars ablaze and causing the partial collapse of a two- story building that housed electronics stores. The street was littered with charred televisions, satellite dishes and small generators. Shattered blue tiles and glass and blood were trampled over as the survivors tried to rush the more than 131 people wounded in the attack to the hospital. They wrapped the dead in rugs and blankets and whatever else they could find. Abdul Hussein Ameer ran when he heard the first blast shortly after 3 p.m.; he is so familiar with the pattern of the suicide bombers that he knew another explosion was likely. But before he could get out of his shop, where he sells plastic containers and dishes, the second bomb detonated. "I hold the American forces responsible for this", he said, black soot on his face and clothes. Fifteen minutes before the attack, a joint patrol of American soldiers and Iraqi police officers had stopped on the corner where the second bomb exploded, posing for pictures, according to a Reuters photographer who was embedded with the American unit. Pres Bush has acknowledged that the attacks of suicide bombers will be difficult to eliminate. He said the immediate goal of the plan was to establish "relative peace". Another car bomb on Sunday targeting a police checkpoint in the Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City killed 2 people and wounded 11 others, according to Iraqi officials. Maj Gen Joseph Fil Jr., commanding general of Multi-National Division Baghdad and the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, said Feb 16 that one way they were hoping to stem the bloodshed was to limit access to the major markets - where Iraqis have no choice but to shop for essential goods - to pedestrians. Residents and witnesses said that the market where the attack occurred Feb 18 had been closed to traffic, and they were at a loss to explain how the attackers had been able to get into the area. The bombers were likely Sunni militants, according to American and Iraqi officials, seeking to undermine the security plan and to fuel the sectarian tensions that have torn Baghdad apart. There had been a noticeable increase in the presence of both American and Iraqi forces throughout the capital over the last four days. Fighter jets can be heard flying over Baghdad all day long, and on the ground, dozens of new checkpoints have been established throughout the city. During a three-day lull in extreme violence, since Maliki announced the start of the crackdown, there had been a palpable sense of tension in Baghdad. Iraqi civilians, in interviews over the past week, expressed hope that the plan would work but no confidence that it would succeed. American officials have been much more cautious than Iraqi politicians and military commanders in trying to damp expectations for immediate results. Fil said that the recent respite in violence was likely due to the militants trying to figure out what the new strategy entailed. "They are watching us carefully", he said. Beyond setting up checkpoints, American troops are reinserting themselves in neighbourhoods in ways that they have not done since the earliest days of the campaign here, establishing a series of joint security stations where they are living with and fighting alongside Iraqi forces. The increased presence comes with increased risk, and on Feb 17 two American soldiers were killed in separate attacks in Baghdad, the military said Sunday. But American and Iraqi officials also pointed to recent successes that they attributed to the stepped-up military campaign. Over the past year, it has been common for as many as 50 bodies to turn up in the street each day, showing signs of torture and indications that they had been killed execution-style. In the past two days, only eight bodies had been recovered, according to Iraqi officials. The Americans also announced that they had captured a militant who they believed to be responsible for planning a series of car bomb attacks directed at civilians.