Female bombers kill 72 at Baghdad pet markets

By Paul Tait and Dean Yates

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Female bombers detonated by remote control killed 72 people in attacks blamed on al Qaeda at two Baghdad pet markets on Friday, the Iraqi capital's deadliest bombings in more than seven months.

Police said a female suicide bomber killed 45 people and wounded 82 at the Ghazil pet market in central Baghdad. Another blast minutes earlier killed 27 people and wounded 67 at a bird market in southern Baghdad, police said.

The U.S. military, which gave a lower death toll, said both attacks were caused by female suicide bombers and blamed al Qaeda. An Iraqi military official said the two women were mentally handicapped and the bombs detonated by remote control.

"By targeting innocent Iraqis they show their true demonic character," Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Stover, a spokesman for U.S. troops in Baghdad, said in a statement referring to al Qaeda in Iraq.

Stover later told Reuters the U.S. military had seen no evidence to suggest the women were handicapped.

While attacks have fallen across Iraq in recent months, the blasts underscore U.S. military warnings that Sunni Islamist al Qaeda remains dangerous and a return to violence that took Iraq to the brink of sectarian civil war is still possible.

The attacks are also a bitter blow to the hopes of many Iraqis that security in the capital was getting better.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the bombings underlined "the absolute bankruptcy and brutality" of those who carried them out.

"This is the most brutal and the most bankrupt of movements," Rice told reporters in Washington. "The Iraqi people have been right to turn against these terrible, violent people in their midst who will do anything."

At the Ghazil market, one of Baghdad's most popular gathering places, people stared at the destruction as workers swept up body parts and blood-stained animal boxes.

"I came here to enjoy myself. I don't know how I survived," said Abu Haider, who was covered in blood as he stood among ruined stalls and carcasses of birds and other animals.

"I was right there at the scene when the blast happened. It knocked me over. When I managed to get up, I saw dozens had been killed and wounded," he said.

One witness said the female bomber entered the market saying she had birds to sell. Scores of people gathered and then the bomb underneath her clothing went off, the witness said.

DETONATED BY REMOTE CONTROL

Major-General Qassim Moussawi, spokesman for the Iraqi military in Baghdad, said the suicide bombs were detonated remotely by mobile telephones.