BAGHDAD — Two mentally disabled women strapped with remote-control explosives — and possibly used as unwitting suicide bombers — brought carnage Friday to two pet bazaars, killing at least 91 people in the deadliest day since Washington flooded the capital with extra troops last spring.
The coordinated blasts — coming 20 minutes apart in different parts of the city — appeared to reinforce U.S. claims al-Qaida in Iraq may be increasingly desperate and running short of able-bodied men willing or available for such missions.
But they also served as a reminder that Iraqi insurgents are constantly shifting their strategies in attempts to unravel recent security gains around the country. Women have been used in ever greater frequency in suicide attacks.
The twin attacks at the pet markets, however, could mark a disturbing use of unknowing agents of death.
Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, Iraq’s chief military spokesman in Baghdad, said the women had Down syndrome and may not have known they were on bombing missions. He said the bombs were detonated by remote control.
In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the bombings prove al-Qaida is “the most brutal and bankrupt of movements” and will strengthen Iraqi resolve to reject terrorism.
Iraqi officials raised the death toll to 91 from 73 early this morning, but they were unable to immediately provide a casualty breakdown in the two bombings. The police and Interior Ministry officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
Earlier, officials had said the first bomber was detonated about 10:20 a.m. in the central al-Ghazl market. Four police and hospital officials said at least 46 people were killed and more than 100 wounded.
About 20 minutes after the first attack, the second female suicide bomber was blown apart in a bird market in a predominantly Shiite area in southeastern Baghdad. Initial reports had said as many as 27 people died and 67 were wounded, police and hospital officials said.
Rae Muhsin, the 21-year-old owner of a cell phone store, said he was walking toward the New Baghdad bird market when the explosion shattered the windows of nearby stores.
“I ran toward the bird market and saw charred pieces of flesh, small spots of blood and several damaged cars,” Muhsin said. “I thought that we had achieved real security in Baghdad, but it turned that we were wrong.”
Navy Cmdr. Scott Rye, a U.S. military spokesman, gave far lower casualty figures — seven killed and 23 wounded in the first bombing, and 20 killed and 30 wounded in the second.
He confirmed, however, that both attacks were carried out by women wearing explosives vests and said the attacks appeared coordinated and likely the work of al-Qaida in Iraq.
While involving women in such deadly activity violates cultural taboos in Iraq, the U.S. military has warned that al-Qaida is recruiting women and young people as suicide attackers because militants are increasingly desperate to thwart stepped-up security measures.
Women in Iraq often wear abayas, the black Islamic robe, and avoid thorough searches at checkpoints because men are not allowed to touch them and there are too few female police.
Even the use of the handicapped in suicide bombings is not unprecedented in Iraq. In January 2005, Iraq’s interior minister said insurgents used a disabled child in a suicide attack on election day. Police at the scene of the bombing said the child appeared to have Down syndrome.
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