BAGHDAD — Three car bombs in central Baghdad killed at least 40 people and wounded 86 as they shopped at a fruit and vegetable market on Saturday.

Angry locals screamed in rage against Saddam Hussein’s Baath party and speculated Sunni insurgents may have planted the bombs in retaliation for a raid on a nearby Sunni rebel stronghold on Friday by Iraqi and U.S. troops.

The bombing came two days after U.S. President George W. Bush met Iraq’s prime minister to discuss ways to avert all-out civil war and 10 days after the bloodiest attack since the U.S. invasion killed more than 200 people in the capital.

A witness spoke of huge blasts going off in the space of two or three minutes, sending black smoke billowing through the narrow lanes of the old Sadriya quarter of Baghdad and leaving a scene of carnage and devastation.

“My brother! My brother!” one man screamed as he tried in vain on his mobile phone to raise a relative who had been shopping nearby. A pick-up lorry piled with several bodies in the back drove away from the scene.

On Friday, Iraqi and American troops stormed the Fadhil area of the old quarter, backed by U.S. attack helicopters, and fought suspected Sunni militants for several hours.

Bush Backing

While Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki received strong backing from U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday, he remains under pressure to get tougher with Sunni insurgents and Shi’ite party militias who have created virtual no-go zones in the capital and are blamed for thousands of deaths.

The White House said Bush would meet the most powerful party leader in the Shi’ite majority, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, on Monday and the Sunni vice president later this month.

Data on Friday from Interior Ministry officials showed a 44 percent leap in civilian casualties in November compared with October. The increase, to 1,850 deaths, was matched by a 45 percent rise in civilian deaths tallied by Reuters.

They included 202 people killed in last week’s multiple car bombing in the Shi’ite stronghold of Sadr city.

The violence has its epicentre in Baghdad, despite thousands of U.S. troops being poured into the capital to help the Iraqi army regain control of the streets from sectarian death squads.

Next week, an independent bipartisan group will recommend U.S. troops pull back into their bases in Iraq in more of a support role, while providing training and equipment for Iraqi forces.

Maliki has complained his security forces, heavily dependent on U.S. armour and air power since Saddam was toppled in 2003, are ill-equipped to tackle the violence and need more weapons.

After meeting Bush in Jordan on Thursday, he said his forces would be able to take over security command from U.S. troops by June 2007, which could allow Washington to start withdrawing.

Source: Reuters