At least 71 killed in separate Baghdad bombings

Suspected insurgents set off two bombs in a main square of central Baghdad and killed at least 71 people.

Suspected insurgents set off two bombs in a main square of central Baghdad and killed at least 71 people.

The co-ordinated attack in Tayaran Square at 7am involved a parked car bomb and a suicide attacker who drove up in a minibus, pretended to hire day labourers, and set off his explosive as they got into his vehicle, police said.

The simultaneous explosions, which occurred about 100 feet apart, set fire to about 10 other cars.

At least 71 Iraqis, including seven policemen, were killed in the attack, and 151 people were wounded, police said.

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"The driver of the minibus lured the people to hire them as labourers, and after they gathered he detonated the vehicle," said one witness.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, a member of Iraq's Shia majority, blamed the attack on Saddamists and Takfiri (Sunni extremists).

In a speech in the legislature, Parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni, said: "Today, there was a massacre, the kind that Iraqis are used to every morning."

He said the attack targeted poor people who were trying to feed their families, "turning them into pieces of flesh. God's curse upon those who are behind this."

AP