Residents grieve over the bodies of relatives killed in simultaneous bomb attacks in Baghdad yesterday. Two simultaneous car bombs blasted a busy market in central Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 88 people in fresh violence that came as Iraqis awaited the start of a planned U.S.-backed offensive in the capital. - Reuters

BAGHDAD, (Reuters):

Two car bombs ripped through a busy market in Baghdad yesterday, killing 88 people in fresh violence of the kind that U.S. and Iraqi forces plan to target in a new offensive in the lawless capital.

Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed the car bombs on followers of Saddam Hussein, whose botched execution last month angered many among his fellow minority Sunni Arabs.

The midday blasts, less than a second apart, also maimed scores at a second-hand goods market in Bab al-Sharji, a busy commercial area that is home to both Sunni Arab and Shi'ite shop owners and traders in central Baghdad.

Hours later, at least 14 people were killed and 40 wounded when a bomb exploded in a town near Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, police sources said.

"These terrorists ... imagine this will break the will of the Iraqi people and incite strife," Maliki said in a statement that called the Baghdad bombers "a coalition of Saddamists and terrorists".

Police put the death toll in the Baghdad blasts at 88, with 160 wounded. Bodies lay charred in front of mangled market stalls, while private cars helped ambulances ferry the wounded to hospital as firemen put out the flames.

The casualties swamped the local Kindi hospital - many of the corpses were lain in a row in the street outside, some covered with blue sheets, along with a pile of body parts.

Last week at least 70 people were killed in a double bombing outside a Baghdad university. Maliki also blamed those attacks on Saddam's supporters.

Illegal armed groups

The prime minister announced a major security plan for Baghdad earlier this month, vowing to crush illegal armed groups "regardless of sect or politics".

His critics say earlier attempts to stabilise the capital partly failed because of his reluctance to tackle the Mehdi Army militia led by cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a political ally. The Pentagon says the militia has now overtaken Sunni Islamist al Qaeda as the biggest threat to peace in Iraq.