BBC: Multiple Baghdad attacks kill 47

Multiple Baghdad attacks kill 47

By Mike Wooldridge | BBC world affairs correspondent | August 13, 2006

At least 47 people have been killed and dozens wounded in a multiple bomb and rocket attack in a district on the south-eastern outskirts of Baghdad.

A four-storey building in the Iraqi capital's Zafaraniya district collapsed; it was located in a popular market containing both homes and shops.

One bomb targeted police on the way to the scene.

Officials and eyewitnesses say the blitz began with a Katyusha rocket hitting and demolishing the building.

A few minutes later, as bystanders were trying to pull injured people and bodies from the debris, a car bomb exploded just a short distance away, causing more casualties and more damage.

Some time after that in the same district, a motorcycle bomber blew himself up among a crowd.

And yet another bomb targeted police rescuers, injuring three of them.

This is a religiously mixed, majority Shia area of Baghdad.

It is mixed areas that have often been worst affected by the sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia groups that has been escalating over recent months.

There is a concerted joint American and Iraqi drive in Baghdad at present to curb this new trend in the violence.

This latest attack shows once again the challenge before them.