Martin Fletcher: one day in Baghdad

Baghdad’s fragile peace was shattered yesterday when explosives strapped to two women with Down’s syndrome were detonated by remote control in crowded pet markets, killing at least 91 people in the worst attacks that the capital had experienced for almost a year.

Iraqi and American officials blamed al-Qaeda, and accused the terrorist organisation of plumbing new depths of depravity. Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, said that al-Qaeda’s use of mentally-handicapped women as bombers showed that it had “no political programme here that is acceptable to a civilised society and that this is the most brutal and the most bankrupt of movements”.

Ryan Crocker, the US Ambassador, said: “There is nothing they won’t do if they think it will work in creating carnage and the political fallout that comes from that.”

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Al-Qaeda has increasingly used women as suicide bombers in recent weeks but this would be the first known case of its triggering their explosives through remote control. “We found the mobiles used to detonate the women,” Major-General Qassim Moussawi, an Iraqi military spokesman, said. He said that both women had Down’s syndrome.

The first woman was blown up in the bird section of the popular al-Ghazl pet market in central Baghdad soon after 10am, killing at least 50 people, injuring scores more and leaving the ground covered in body parts, blood and the scorched carcasses of birds.

A mobile phone rang incessantly amid the shoes, prayer beads, identity cards and other debris. Sunni fundamentalists consider the selling of pets to be haram — forbidden on religious grounds.

The woman’s head was found nearby. Colonel Mounim Hashim Fahad, an Iraqi army officer, said that she looked foreign. There were reports that she had blonde hair.

Ahmed Dabab, 36, a bird seller, said: “People were gathering around where most of the bird cages were and then this woman walked into the middle of the crowd. Then I saw a big flame and heard a loud bang. I saw bodies flying through the air. Most of the dead were young.”

Ali Ahmed, a pigeon seller, said: “I just remember the horrible scenes of the bodies of dead and wounded people mixed with the blood of animals and birds, and then I found myself lying in a hospital bed.”

The market, which opens only on Fridays, sells everything from dogs to snakes and exotic fish. It was bombed three times last year, most recently on November 23 when a bomb hidden in an animal container killed 13 people. It has revived in recent weeks, especially since the Friday driving ban was lifted, and yesterday was packed with visitors.

The second attack took place in another bird market in a predominantly Shia area of southeast Baghdad about 20 minutes later, soon before the Islamic call to prayer. That blast killed dozens more.

“I ran towards the bird market and saw charred pieces of flesh, small spots of blood and several damaged cars,” Rae Mushin, 21, the owner of a mobile phone shop, said.

“I thought that we had achieved real security in Baghdad, but it turned out that we were wrong.”

Women suicide bombers used to be rare in Iraq, responsible for only 14 of 667 attacks since May 2005. But six have blown themselves up since November, the previous four in Diyala province north of Baghdad, where al-Qaeda is still a force.

On January 16 a woman suicide bomber blew herself up in a marketplace in a village south of the provincial capital of Baquba, killing nine Shias preparing to celebrate the Ashura festival. On December 12 a woman detonated her suicide vest near a police patrol in Baquba, wounding nine. On December 7 a woman attacked the offices of a Diyala-based Sunni group opposed to al-Qaeda, killing 15. On November 4 a woman blew herself up next to a US patrol in Baquba, wounding 13.

Though the use of women in warfare violates religious taboos, they have obvious appeal for terrorists because they can conceal explosives beneath their black robes — abayas — and usually escape the rigorous body searches to which men are subjected.

The US military in Baghdad said last night that al-Qaeda was turning to women out of desperation. “Terrorists are increasingly training women to become human bombs. In Iraq, this is occurring because coalition forces are pushing extremists out of former strongholds and shrinking their pool of recruits,” it said in a statement.

Yesterday’s bombings were the worst to hit Baghdad since April 18 last year, when 116 people were killed by a suicide car bomber. They came a day after the Government published figures showing that 541 Iraqis were killed last month, a 23-month low continuing a downward trend that began with the US troop surge.

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