Three bomb attacks at markets in central Baghdad killed at least 79 people today as Iraqis marked the first anniversary of a Shia shrine bombing that pitched the country to the brink of civil war.
Residents gather at the site of twin car bomb attacks at Shorja market in Baghdad.
In the deadliest attack, twin car bombings exploded in quick succession in the Shorja wholesale market, killing at least 71 people and wounding 164, police said.
Interior Ministry sources said the blasts were caused by a car bomb and a roadside bomb.
The blasts, which echoed across Baghdad, reduced market stalls to mangled wrecks. People with wooden carts carried badly wounded survivors with bandaged legs, arms and heads.
"Paramedics were picking up body pieces and human flesh from the pools of blood on the ground and placing them in small plastic bags," one witness said, adding that 20 cars were set on fire.
A separate roadside bomb attack at the Bab al-Sharji market, also in central Baghdad, killed at least eight people, police sources said.
The Shorja market, one of the city's oldest, has been bombed frequently.
The bomb attacks occurred around the same time as Shia government officials held several minutes of silence to mark the first anniversary under the Islamic calendar of the bombing of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra - which is holy to Shias. Under the Gregorian calendar the bombing was on February 22nd.
Earlier, Iraq's top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani urged followers not to seek revenge against Sunnis. Sistani said the Samarra bombing, blamed on Sunni militants, had plunged Iraq into a cycle of "blind violence".