A bomb hidden in a box carrying pigeons struck a crowded animal market in central Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens, officials and witnesses said.
The explosive device was hidden in a box when it detonated at about 10am at the Souq al-Ghazl, which attracts buyers, sellers and farmers peddling birds, dogs, cats, sheep and goats and exotic animals like snakes and monkeys.
Police and hospital officials said at least 15 people were killed and 35 were wounded.
PHOTO: AP
A witness said a man arrived with an egg carton containing pigeons for sale, but it exploded after he walked away to get a drink, tearing through the potential buyers gathering around the box.
"I was about 60m from the blast," said Raad Hassan, a frequent customer at the market.
"My friends and I rushed to the scene where we saw burned dead bodies, pieces of flesh and several dead expensive puppies and birds," he said.
Ali Nassir said dead animals were scattered on the blood-soaked ground and several snakes, monkeys and birds had been let loose from their cages as ambulances and police cars converged on the scene.
"The policemen are firing in the air in order to disperse the crowds of people arriving to find out what happened to relatives who were missing," he said.
"The explosion was huge and happened in a crowded place," he added.
An 18-year-old homing pigeon vendor who was wounded expressed frustration at the unrelenting violence in the capital.
"I went this morning to the animal market to earn some money and to entertain myself, instead I was hit by the explosion and lost consciousness, my pigeons and my mobile phone," Sajad Abdel-Jabar said from his hospital bed.
The al-Ghazl market, or Spinning Market, also was attacked in early June, when two bombings struck in quick succession, killing at least five people, as insurgents often strike commercial targets to maximize the casualties.
The popular market stands on the eastern side of the Tigris river next to the famous 13th century Sunni Ulama Mosque that was built by the Abbasid dynasty. The shops around the mosque used to be for its spinning mills but the area transformed into an animal market a few decades ago.
Police also raised the casualty toll in a suicide car bombing that struck the central Shiite neighborhood of Karradah on Thursday, saying 30 people were killed and 61 wounded.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported yesterday that US soldiers have been authorized to kill or capture Iranian operatives found in Iraq, citing US government and counterterrorism officials.
The authorization covers Iranian Revolutionary Guard and intelligence officers found in Iraq, but not Iranian civilians or diplomats, the Post reported.
Back in the US a third soldier was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Thursday after pleading guilty in the deaths of three Iraqi detainees, officials at Fort Campbell in Kentucky said.
Private first class Corey Clagett, 22, had entered into a plea agreement at the start of his court-martial on the military base.
The slayings occurred in May last year. Clagett, of Moncks Corner, South Carolina, pleaded guilty to attempted premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit premeditated murder, premeditated murder, conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion