Bombs mark grim anniversary

last updated 8 January 2015

Baghdad

Bombs killed at least 78 people in two Baghdad markets this week on the first anniversary of the destruction of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, a major Shiite shrine. That bombing set off the Sunni-Shiite warfare that has raged across Iraq all year. Survivors of this week’s market attacks blamed Sunni insurgents. “The goal of the insurgents is to show us that the government is weak,” said Baghdad merchant Ali Hassan Flayha. “We understand. They’re right.” One of the attacks came just as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, at an outdoor news conference, was touting the new U.S.-Iraqi initiative to secure Baghdad. “I am very hopeful that the Iraqis will work together to support the Iraqi security forces and police,” al-Maliki declared, as the explosion sounded nearby.