Hydrablog

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/01/AR2008020100278.html
After Months of Relative Calm, 2 Deadly Blasts Rock Baghdad
By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, February 2, 2008; A01 underway] [some positive indicators of improvement] [nevertheless, violence while surge unfolds] [pentagon’s recent status report—pretty awful but also predictable] [followup] [“surge” continues amid mixed indicators] [a recent pickup in suicide bombers] [somebody is clearly attempting to increase tension between Arabs and Kurds where Saddam’s Arabization has already created much tension] [qui bono: AQI, disgruntled Sunni Arab insurgents, ?] [cable reports yesterday suggested the women were down syndrome and/or mentally retarded] [***]
BAGHDAD, Feb. 1 -- Amid so much that cannot be trusted, so much that is dangerous to do, Hassan Jarbou had begun to find some solace every Friday in the act of buying birds.
More confident in the safety of his Baghdad neighborhood in recent months, Jarbou had returned to this small pleasure: a brisk morning walk from his house to Dove Market in eastern Baghdad, a cup of tea with his friends, then shopping amid the singing of nightingales and turtledoves.
On Friday morning, as the woman wearing the black cloak over an explosive vest stalked into the market, he had already chosen a new pair of lovebirds to add to his collection at home.
At 10:50 a.m., the bombing blasted away the morning calm, killing and wounding dozens of people. About 10 minutes earlier, less than five miles away, the same grim scene had just occurred: a female bomber, a pet market, and an explosion that marred the sense of cautious hope that has returned to much of Baghdad. The two bombings killed 58 people, according to Iraqi police, and wounded more than 170 others. The attacks amounted to the deadliest day in Baghdad in more than six months.
"This was a terrible thing to see," Jarbou said. "I will never forget it."
In recent months, there have been at least six female suicide bombers in different parts of Iraq, particularly in Diyala province, north of the capital. But Iraqi officials said they were unaware of any previous instance in which two female bombers had struck in Baghdad at the same time.
Maj. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said he believed the bombings were a coordinated effort by the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq. Khalaf said witnesses and police reported that the two women were mentally disabled, but U.S. military officials said they knew of no evidence to support such a claim. [*****]
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the bombings in a statement.
"The ugliness of this crime will not weaken the resolve of our armed forces and it will raise up our determination to deliver security," Maliki said.
The first bombing hit the Ghazil market in central Baghdad, the largest and most famous animal market in the city, which has been attacked at least four times in the past two years. The entrance to the market is blocked by high concrete barriers to prevent vehicles from entering and is manned by security guards. But several vendors said the guards had become lax about searching shoppers as they entered and had been allowing motorcycles to drive in. The market sells a wide variety of animals -- tropical fish, pigeons, goats and puppies -- and it is at its most crowded on Friday mornings.
The blast scattered corpses and body parts on the pavement, shattered windows and market stalls, and sparked a panicked stampede from the scene of the attack.
"There were pieces of people everywhere. One was without a head, others were without arms. Some were dead and not moving, some were crawling," said Jawad Kadim, 21, who sells birds in the market. "I closed my shop and I ran away. It's getting worse and worse here."
U.S. military officials said seven people were killed and 23 others wounded in the Ghazil market attack, while Iraqi police put the toll much higher: 45 killed and 105 wounded.
As the use of car bombs has declined in recent months, the number of suicide vest attacks has risen. [**********]
"Their car bomb capabilities have been badly disrupted, so now, as we saw today and as we've seen for some time, they are moving toward suicide vests, in this case suicide vests worn by women," Ryan C. Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told the Associated Press. "No one's doing victory dances, and today's horrific bombings illustrate why that's the case."
After the bombing, as firefighters hosed down the bloody pavement and a bulldozer nudged away the debris, dozens of people milled around the site of the explosion. The mood was strangely casual. A group of boys played soccer in the street a few hundred yards from the bomb site. Old men showed off their shrapnel wounds from previous bombings at the market. A veterinarian who was buying fluorescent light bulbs at the market said the scene was, in fact, quite normal.
"The difference is the birds are targeted now," said Albert Sabah, 28, with a bit of black humor. "Maybe they want to wipe out bird flu."
There was nonetheless an edgy tension. U.S. and Iraqi armored Humvees prowled through the market. A cellphone video circulated among the crowd at the Ghazil market showing the alleged bomber's head being picked up by her long brown hair and put in a white shopping bag. A man selling cats shooed away a young boy carrying a plastic bag because he was afraid it might be a bomb. Many vendors said they felt helpless to defend themselves.
"I work with animals, I live off of animals, this is what my father and my grandfather did," said Wasfi Abed Yasin, 47, who was selling Dobermans, which he wanted to train to sniff for bombs. "I don't know how to do any other job."
Sayid Abdul Hafidh, who moved from Egypt to Baghdad more than two decades ago, sells power adapters from a sidewalk table directly across from the blast site. When the bomb exploded, the window glass of the building behind him shattered and fell down on top of him.
"I want to live. I want to eat," he said. "You know the circumstances and how difficult the security situation is. The difficulties push you to work and forget about the risks. We are doing nothing wrong; we are just selling our goods and sitting here at God's gate."
For centuries the Ghazil market has held a central place in the culture of the city, first as a weaver's market during the time of the Islamic caliphate and in recent years as a gathering point for vendors of animals exotic and mundane. While many Shiites live in the area around the market -- posters of Shiite imams and the family of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr adorn the walls -- it attracts a mix [*****] of people from across the city and surrounding provinces.
Shoppers and vendors said the market was a target primarily because it attracts a large crowd of civilians and is not rigorously guarded. [*****] They said untrained, U.S.-financed local gunmen, known as the "awakening" forces, help guard the market. "They were searching people for a while and then they stopped," Yasin said. "They are not professionals, they just joke around."
"This used to be a beautiful market, a beautiful business, and now it's destroyed," he said.
The second bombing struck the Dove Market in the New Baghdad area, also east of the Tigris River. The U.S. military said 20 people died and an additional 30 were injured, while Iraqi police said at least 13 people died and more than 65 were injured. A military spokesman in Baghdad said the female bomber was carrying a backpack filled with shrapnel such as ball bearings. The market is not fortified by concrete walls, but there are guards stationed there.
Jarbou, the bird collector, said he saw the woman in the black, body-covering abaya from behind, a few seconds before she exploded.
"Her body, because of the bomb, was torn apart. You could see her flesh everywhere," he said. "Many of the birds were killed and the shops were broken."
Although Jarbou has always loved birds and keeps more than 50 of them at his home, he acknowledged that it might be time for a new hobby.
"I'm thinking I will sell all my birds," he said. "And I will never go to that market again."
Special correspondent Naseer Nouri contributed to this report.
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