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Dozens killed in Baghdad blasts Dozens killed in Baghdad blasts
(about 2 hours later)
At least 54 people have been killed and over 140 injured in two car bombs in a main square in central Baghdad. At least 57 people have been killed and 148 hurt in two near-simultaneous bombings in a central Baghdad square.
Reports say the blasts went off simultaneously - one in a parked car and the other in a vehicle driven by a suicide bomber. The first bomb, placed in a car, reportedly targeted a police patrol in a square frequented by Shia labourers.
A police spokesman said it appeared that the bombs were aimed at a police patrol and a crowd of Iraqis gathering to apply for jobs as day labourers. Minutes later, a nearby suicide bomber detonated an explosive-packed pick-up truck after attracting day labourers with an offer of work.
Gunfire could be heard immediately after the explosions. The BBC's Andrew North in Baghdad says this appears to be the latest violence in a spiral of sectarian attacks.
It was not clear whether it involved police or insurgents staging a co-ordinated attack. Gunfire could be heard immediately after the explosions but it is not clear if this was the work of insurgent snipers or police. Smaller blasts were also heard later in the area.
The square is located near several government ministries and a bridge which crosses the Tigris River to the heavily fortified Green Zone, where the Iraqi parliament and the American and British embassies are located. Iraqi police say at least 150kg of explosives and ammunition were used in the latest attacks in central Baghdad's Tayaran Square.
After the explosion, not a single person in the square was standing, I thought everyone was dead Khaled NasserWitness
The blasts happened at about 0700 (0400 GMT), at a time when the square was crowded with day labourers looking for manual work.
'Bees to honey''Bees to honey'
The explosions occurred about 30m (100ft) apart and set fire to at least 10 other cars in the area, police told AP news agency. It is unclear if the first explosion took place in a parked car or in a vehicle driven by a bomber that rammed a police patrol.
They said a pickup van packed with explosives detonated in the busy Tayaran Square in the Rusafa district of the city. The AFP news agency quotes witnesses as saying the first explosion forced people to take shelter on the other side of the square.
The vehicle was offering daily work to the gathered labourers, they said - attracting a large crowd before the explosion. Minutes later, the pick-up truck exploded in the crowd.
"They came like bees to honey," an interior ministry official told AFP news agency. The bomber tried to ensure the greatest number of casualties by attracting labourers to his vehicle with the promise of work.
Seconds later, a nearby parked car also exploded, police said. "After the explosion, not a single person in the square was standing, I thought everyone was dead," Khaled Nasser, a labourer, told the AFP news agency.
Khalil Ibrahim, 41, a shop owner told AP news agency: "In the first explosion, I saw people falling over, some of them blown apart. When the other bomb went off seconds later, it slammed me into a wall of my store and I fainted." He said his friends were "all cut in half, no legs, and for some I could only find their heads".
Khalil Ibrahim, 41, a shop owner told AP news agency: "In the first explosion, I saw people falling over, some of them blown apart.
"When the other bomb went off seconds later, it slammed me into a wall of my store and I fainted."
Witnesses described thick, black smoke rising from the site.Witnesses described thick, black smoke rising from the site.
Rising violence
Tayaran square has been targeted by bombers before. It is located near several government ministries and a bridge which crosses the Tigris River to the heavily fortified Green Zone.
The square is frequented by day labourers from the Shia suburb of Sadr City who gather there every day hoping to find manual work.
Last month has seen some of the bloodiest violence in Iraq since the US invasion in 2003.
While suicide bombings are the hallmark of the Sunni insurgency, Iraq's Shia militia groups have been blamed for operating death squads responsible for hundreds of abductions and executions.