WORLD> Middle East
Blasts kill 78 in Iraq's bloodiest day in a year
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-24 10:46

Muhanad Harbi, a shop owner near the blast site, said he saw a woman wearing a black robe move into the crowd. He said it appeared she detonated an explosives belt.

Shanoon Humoud, 70, sat weeping among burned food packages scattered on the ground. Her husband, her son and two grandchildren were killed in the blast.

Humoud said she was in her apartment praying when she heard the blast.

"I came down to look for my relatives who were getting the food," she said. "But I couldn't find them."

Blasts kill 78 in Iraq's bloodiest day in a year
A resident cries near a damaged vehicle at the site of a suicide bomb attack in Baghdad April 23, 2009. [Agencies]

Abbas Ibrahim, a 24-year-old college student, rushed to the scene, dodging through pools of blood and wincing at the smell of scorched human flesh.

"We regret that violence has come back to Baghdad," he said.

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A spokesman for the Iraqi Red Crescent, Mohammad al-Khuzaie, called the attack "a brutal assault on humanitarian activities."

"We were trying to help the widows, orphans and divorced women when the blast occurred," he said.

North of Baghdad, the target was a crowded restaurant near Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles northeast of Baghdad, and a popular rest stop for Iranian pilgrims traveling by road to and from Shiite shrines in southern Iraq.

At least 47 people were killed and 69 were wounded, said US military spokesman Derrick Cheng. Iraqi officials gave the same death toll.

Iranian state television reported that the blast killed about 35 Iranian pilgrims and wounded 60 others. It did not elaborate and there was no immediate reaction from Iranian officials.

Iraq's Shiite-led government has close ties to Tehran and has dedicated significant security resources to protect processions during major Shiite pilgrimages.

In January, a suicide bomber mingling among Iranian pilgrims killed more than three dozen people outside a mosque in Baghdad.

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