Car bombs kill 60 in Baghdad

By Carlos Barria and Ross Colvin

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two car bombs tore through a packed shopping area of a mainly Shi'ite district of Baghdad on Sunday, killing 60 people in the worst attack since U.S. and Iraqi troops launched a crackdown in the city five days ago.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had on Friday trumpeted what he called the "brilliant success" of Operation Imposing Law in quelling the sectarian violence that has turned the capital's streets into killing fields.

U.S. generals, mindful of a similar crackdown last year that failed, have been more cautious and warned that any downturn in violence might be temporary as militants adapt their tactics to meet the new strategy.

The two car bombs exploded in quick succession near a busy, pedestrianised market area of New Baghdad, a mainly Shi'ite district in eastern Baghdad, killing 60 people and wounding 131, police said.

A Reuters photographer, Carlos Barria, who is embedded with a U.S. military unit that was in the area, reported seeing seven or eight bodies lying in the street after the two blasts, which he said were about 10 seconds and 100 metres (yards) apart.

"I saw a man about 50 years old. He was carrying a dead boy who looked about 10. He was holding him by one arm and one leg and screaming," he said.

A man wearing a business suit lay dead next to a black Mercedes, a piece of shrapnel sticking out of his head. One of the explosions partially demolished a two-storey building.

POSING FOR PICTURES

Fifteen minutes earlier, a joint patrol of U.S. and Iraqi police had stopped to pose for pictures with each other on the street corner where the second bomb exploded.

Baghdad's markets have been hit by a spate of particularly deadly car bombings since the start of the year. Some 71 people were killed a week ago in Shorja wholesale market, prompting U.S. generals to look at pedestrianising the bigger markets.

A third car bomb on Sunday killed two people when it exploded near a police checkpoint in Sadr City, a stronghold of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia, blamed by Sunni Arab leaders for many death squad killings.

Residents of areas like Sadr City and New Baghdad, however, view the Mehdi Army as their protectors against attacks such as Sunday's. The militia have been keeping a low profile since the offensive began, appearing on the streets without their guns.

The bombers may have aimed to take advantage of this.

The U.S. military says Sadr himself has fled to Iran, although Tehran again denied this on Sunday. The cleric's aides insist he is still in Iraq.

BASRA CLASHES