BAGHDAD - Bombs ripped through markets killing at least 100 people in and around Baghdad on Monday as US and Iraqi forces prepared for a large-scale assault on insurgents and militias in the violent capital.
Two car bombs exploded at a busy second-hand market in the heart of Baghdad, killing 88 Iraqis, security officials said.
The bombs exploded seconds apart in the Haraj market shortly after midday (0900 GMT), sending twin columns of thick smoke billowing above the Bab al-Sharki district on the east bank of the Tigris river.
It was the deadliest attack in the capital this year and came less than a week after twin bombs killed 70 people, mostly students, outside a Baghdad university.
Hospital and security sources put the casualty toll at 88 dead and 160 wounded in Haraj market, which is usually filled with traders selling used electronic goods, watches, clothing and medicines.
"There were so many victims they were piled up on wooden market carts, the wounded on top of the dead, and hauled to ambulances and police vehicles," an AFP photographer at the site said.
"Improvised rescue workers made their way through the carnage amid the cries of those wounded."
At the nearby Al-Kindi hospital, some of the victims` relatives squatted on the ground, holding their heads in grief, while others cried before bodies lined up on the ground and covered with light blue and black plastic sheets.
But the deadly mayhem did not stop there.
A few hours later, a combination of mortar fire and a roadside bomb killed another 12 people at a popular market in the town of Khalis, 80 kilometres (60 miles) northeast of Baghdad.
The bomb was placed in a vegetable cart and ripped through a crowd of people as they shopped late in the day in the town, which is located in the volatile Diyala province, Lieutenant Ahmad Mohammed said.
Insurgents have stepped up attacks as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the US authorities are busy putting in place a new security plan to secure the capital.
The bombings came as the US military continued to suffer heavy casualties, with 46 personnel killed since the start of the month.
Twenty-five US troops died on Saturday alone, including 12 in a helicopter crash, in one of the highest single-day death tolls since the US-led invasion of March 2003.
The aircraft may have been shot down with a shoulder-fired missile, a senior US defense official said Monday.
Under the new security plan, about 3,200 extra US troops have landed in Baghdad where raging sectarian conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.
The key element of the plan announced by US President George W. Bush on January 11 is to crack down on militias engaged in the communal bloodletting.
Iraqi and US officials maintain that equipped with wider powers under the new plan, the US military will take on the Mahdi Army militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Anticipating such a crackdown, the political group backing Sadr rejoined Maliki`s embattled government and the parliament on Sunday following a two-month boycott.
"We are supporting the government of Maliki," said a source close to Sadr.
"We will not bear arms if the government provides security for the population. We realise that the American strategy is against our militias. We are ready to lay our weapons down if the government offers security."
The return has boosted Maliki`s position by bringing six ministers back to the cabinet and 32 MPs to the 275-member parliament.
The group, known for its aggressive anti-US stance, has refrained from violent protests even though one of its top aides is now in detention.
Sheikh Abdul Hadi al-Darraji, a spokesman for the Sadr movement in Baghdad, was arrested Friday along with four other people when Iraqi and US forces raided a Shiite religious site.
Without naming him, the US military charged that the detainee was operating an illegal armed group involved in torturing and kidnapping civilians.
"Even after Darraji`s arrest we have maintained peace. We are told not to protest and have instructions not to confront the Americans," the source close to Sadr said.
Iraq government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said efforts were being made to secure Darraji`s release but added that "the security forces have a right to question anybody".
Meanwhile, Bush declined to predict how long troops would remain in the violence-wracked country where more than 3,050 US military personnel have been killed since the invasion almost four years ago.
"We don`t set timetables in this administration because an enemy will adjust their tactics based upon perceived action by the United States," Bush told the newspaper USA Today.

01/22/2007 16:49 GMT