Two suicide bombers strapped with explosives blew themselves up in a crowd of protesting former policemen south of Baghdad today, killing 27 in one of the deadliest attacks in a month of escalating violence.
The blasts in the mostly Shi'ite town of Hilla and the reported arrest of a Sunni Arab political leader by US forces in Baghdad put fresh strain on Iraq's sectarian divisions. Al-Qaeda's network in Iraq claimed responsibility for the bombings in separate statements posted on the Internet.
Police said the bombers mingled with former police commandos who were demonstrating outside a government office because their unit had been disbanded. The first bomber detonated his explosives in the middle of the crowd. As survivors scattered, the other bomber ran with them and blew himself up nearby.
"You just can't count the dead because the bodies were torn apart," said one Iraqi man surveying the scene. "May God punish those who did this."
More than 100 people were wounded, police said. Body parts lay in pools of blood on the street beside discarded sandals and shoes. Workers carried shredded bodies on stretchers and sheets and loaded them onto the back of pick up trucks.
In an effort to restore public confidence sapped by relentless violence and the long delay in forming a cabinet after the elections, the government has launched the biggest Iraqi military operation since the fall of Saddam Hussein to hunt for foreign Arab fighters and Iraqi insurgents in Baghdad.
Officials say 40,000 Iraqi troops will seal off routes into the capital and search the city district by district under Operation Lightning, which began on Sunday.
The al Qaeda network in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said it had launched an offensive in response to the operation.
Insurgents fought pitched battles with Iraqi police in western Baghdad yesterday and detonated at least three suicide car bombs in the capital. Across the country, insurgent attacks killed at least 25 Iraqis and a British soldier yesterday.