Twin car bombs in central Baghdad have killed up to 120 people and wounded more than 150.
 
The blasts on Monday came on the first anniversary of the bombing of the Al Askari mosque in Samarra, north of the capital.
 
The first car bomb exploded in a garage under a wholesale market in the Shorja district killing more than 40 people.

A second explosion hit the Haraj market just over one kilometre away, killing at least five more people and wounding more than 30.

People on fire

A column of smoke hundreds of feet wide billowed into the air above the market near the east bank of the Tigris river and near the central bank building.

The two car bombs, which occurred within 100m of each other, made a building to collapse and set shops and market stalls on fire.

Ambulances and trucks took the wounded to nearby al-Kindi hospital in the largely Shia area that has been hit by a series of deadly bombings since the first of the year.

A cameraman at the scene saw people on fire and more than 30 ambulances arriving.

Hoda Abdel-Hamid, Al Jazeera's correspondent, said that 120 people have reportedly died, with the death toll likely to rise.

Anniversary attack

The Samarra attack by al-Qaeda in Iraq in 2006 set off a torrent of sectarian bloodletting that has turned Baghdad and much of central Iraq into a battleground.
The blasts appeared timed to mark the end of a national 15-minute pause for reflection called by Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, on the first anniversary of Samarra shrine attack.

One resident said: "My store was completely burned, I lost 100,000 dollars."

"The government officials sit calmly in their offices, stuck on their chairs," he complained, reflecting a widespread perception that al-Maliki's unity regime has failed to get a grip on the chaos in Baghdad.

 Al-Maliki had ordered thousands of police and troops onto the street as part of a joint Iraqi and US security plan.

Photo caption

Bombing aftermath