Iraqi police said on Friday at least 68 people died in coordinated bombing attacks blamed on al Qaeda in a packed shopping area in central Baghdad on Thursday, making it the deadliest attack in the Iraqi capital for almost a year.
Another 120 were injured when two bombs went off within minutes of each other on Thursday evening in Baghdad's mainly Shi'ite Karrada district, police said, according to Reuters. The incident was the single bloodiest attack in Baghdad since last April.
The streets were packed at the time of Thursday's blasts with vendors selling goods on sidewalks and locals shopping at the start of the Muslim weekend. Iraqi and American officials said a roadside bomb went off first. Minutes later, as Iraqi security forces and locals gathered to tend to the casualties, there was a second, larger explosion.
Police and the U.S. military said they believed the second explosion was caused by a suicide bomber.
