Iraq: Baghdad pet market bombing kills 5
Chicks are kept in a cage as Iraqis visit Baghdad’s Al-Ghazel animal market on May 11, 2012.
Simultaneous blasts at a busy market in eastern Baghdad on Friday killed five people and wounding dozens, according to reports.
According to the Associated Press, three bombs struck the busy bird market in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City at around 7 a.m.
Thousands of Iraqis converge on pet markets each Friday, part of the Muslim weekend, making them a favorite target of militants seeking to inflict large numbers of causalities, the AP wrote.
In February 2008, 99 people were killed by bomb attacks at two other pet markets in Baghdad, CNN reported.
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Although violence has dropped in Iraq since 2008, insurgents — frequently Al Qaeda linked, according to the Voice of Russia — frequently attack security forces and civilians, aiming to undermine the Shiite-led government.
In April, 126 people were killed in attacks across the country, CNN reported, adding that March had the lowest monthly death toll for Iraqis since the US-led invasion in 2003, with only 112 people killed.
An explosion in a popular restaurant in southeastern Baghdad on Thursday killed three people.
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