At least 100 people were killed and some 180 injured in bombings targeting Shiite areas in and around Baghdad Monday, police and officials said.
In the latest incident, a bomb followed by a mortar attack hit a market in a predominantly Shiite town north of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 12 people and wounding nearly 30, police said. The bomb exploded at 5 p.m. near the main market in Khalis, 50 miles north of Baghdad.
Earlier, at least 88 people died and at least 150 were injured after two nearly simultaneous bombs hit a predominantly Shiite commercial area in central Baghdad Monday, said Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-zamili.
According to the AP, the first explosion reported shortly after noon when a bomb left in a bag placed among the stalls of vendors peddling DVDs and secondhand clothes went off in the Bab al-Sharqi area between Tayaran and Tahrir squares.
It was followed almost immediately by a parked car bomb just feet away.
The attacks left body parts strewn on the bloodstained pavement, along with DVDs and compact discs. Iraqi police sealed off the area as ambulances rushed to the scene to evacuate the victims.
Earlier Monday, gunmen killed a female teacher as she was on her way to work at a girls' school in the mainly Sunni area of Khadra in western Baghdad, police said.
Meanwhile, two U.S. Marines died Sunday in separate attacks in the Anbar province, west of Baghdad, the military said. The deaths came a day after 25 U.S. troops were killed Saturday.
