Baghdad: At least 70 people were killed and more than 113 wounded in a pair of nearly simultaneous car bombings in central Baghdad's Bab al-Sharqi district in a predominantly Shiite commercial area.
The second-hand clothing market where the bombings took place has been the site of several attacks in the past. A suicide bomber had killed at least 63 people in the same area last month.
The first blast occurred shortly after noon when a bomb left in a bag placed among the stalls at the market in the area between Tayaran and Tahrir squares.
It was followed almost immediately by a parked car bomb close by. Iraqi police sealed off the area as ambulances rushed to the scene to evacuate the victims.
Hours earlier on Monday, gunmen killed a teacher as she was on her way to work at a girls' school in the mainly Sunni area of Khadra in western Baghdad, police said, adding that the teacher's driver was wounded in the drive-by shooting.
Attacks and the crash of a Black Hawk helicopter killed 25 American troops killed in Iraq on Saturday, making it one of the deadliest days for the US military since the war began almost four years ago.
On Sunday, two Marines, both members of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit based at Camp Pendleton, California, were killed in separate battles in western Iraq, bringing the weekend's toll to 27.
Last week, 142 Iraqis were found dead on Tuesday, including 65 students at a Baghdad university who died in twin car bombings.
The highest single-day US military death toll was recorded on January 26, 2005, when 37 American troops died, comprising 31 from a Marine helicopter crash that was ruled accidental and six combat deaths.
The total US military deaths in January has reached 53 and the number since the Iraq war has risen to 3,050. In addition to the helicopter crash, troops were killed on Saturday by roadside bombs, wounds sustained in combat, and a grenade attack, the military said.
(With Agency inputs)
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