The two simultaneous blasts in the heart of Baghdad injured around 150 people. Police patrols and people waiting and hoping to get work as day labourers were targeted.

 

Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) – At least 57 people were killed and more than 150 injured in two car bombs in Rusafa neighbourhood in the heart of Baghdad. It appears the bombs went off at the same time: one in a parked car and the other in a vehicle driven by a suicide bomber. A police spokesman confirmed that the attack was directed at a security forces patrol and a group of workers who had gathered to apply for day jobs. Several shots were heard after the blasts.

Tayaran Square, the scene of the attacks, is close to several ministries and a bridge that crosses the Tigri River leading to the fortified Green Zone, where the Iraqi parliament and US embassy are situated. According to sources of the Ministry of the Interior, “the suicide bomber was offering daily work and the workers came like bees to honey. Then he blew himself up.” Immediately afterwards, the second bomb that had been placed in the parked car went off. The technique of suicide bombers of drawing people close and then blowing themselves up has already been used in the country and aims to inflict the greatest possible number of victims.