BAGHDAD - THE toll from two bomb attacks on Baghdad markets on Friday has risen to 98 dead and 208 wounded, Iraqi security source said on Saturday.

The sources in the interior and defence ministries said that at least 98 people were killed and 208 wounded in the two explosions in the pet markets of Al-Ghazi and Baghdad al-Jadida.

The bombs were detonated by two mentally impaired women in attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda.

'Both women were mentally impaired. They were wearing belts containing 15 kilogrammes (33 pounds) of explosives,' Major General Qasim Ata, spokesman for the Baghdad security plan, said on Friday.

'The explosives were detonated by remote control,' he said of the blasts which occurred within 20 minutes of each other.

A breakdown of the tolls for each attack was not given by the ministry officials on Saturday. On Friday security officials said 46 had died at Al-Ghazl and 18 at Baghdad al-Jadida.

General Abud Qanbar Hashim, Iraqi commander of Baghdad Operations Command, on Saturday accused Al-Qaeda of using 'mentally handicapped children and adults to do their dirty work.

'Al-Qaeda is desperate. This is why they attack innocent people like this,' he told the news conference.

The United States military, which gave a lower death toll, said both attacks were caused by female suicide bombers and blamed Al-Qaeda. An Iraqi military official said the two women were mentally handicapped and the bombs detonated by remote control.

'By targeting innocent Iraqis they show their true demonic character,' Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Stover, a spokesman for US troops in Baghdad, said in a statement referring to Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Lt-Col Stover later said the US military had seen no evidence to suggest the women were handicapped.

While attacks have fallen across Iraq in recent months, the blasts underscore US military warnings that Sunni Islamist Al-Qaeda remains dangerous and a return to violence that took Iraq to the brink of sectarian civil war is still possible.

The attacks are also a bitter blow to the hopes of many Iraqis that security in the capital was getting better.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the bombings underlined 'the absolute bankruptcy and brutality' of those who carried them out.

'This is the most brutal and the most bankrupt of movements,' Dr Rice told reporters in Washington. 'The Iraqi people have been right to turn against these terrible, violent people in their midst who will do anything.' At the Ghazil market, one of Baghdad's most popular gathering places, people stared at the destruction as workers swept up body parts and blood-stained animal boxes.

'I came here to enjoy myself. I don't know how I survived,' said Mr Abu Haider, who was covered in blood as he stood among ruined stalls and carcasses of birds and other animals.

'I was right there at the scene when the blast happened. It knocked me over. When I managed to get up, I saw dozens had been killed and wounded,' he said.

One witness said the female bomber entered the market saying she had birds to sell. Scores of people gathered and then the bomb underneath her clothing went off, the witness said.

Ambulances tried to push through packed streets to get to Ghazil after the blast, which occurred in almost exactly the same spot as a bombing which killed 13 people on Nov 23.

Police and civil defence officials piled the wounded into wheelbarrows, cars and the back of pick-up trucks while US soldiers helped secure the area. Officials at nearby hospitals said they struggled to cope with the wounded.

'Most people who visit this market are poor and just want to enjoy themselves but they came and got killed,' said Mr Hassan Salman, who sells bird seed at the Ghazil market.

The Ghazil market opens only on Fridays and sells a colourful range of creatures from guard dogs and monkeys to parrots, pigeons and tropical fish.

The November blast, caused by a bomb hidden inside a box of birds, was a big psychological blow for residents who had just begun returning to the streets after security crackdowns last year helped arrest a slide towards all-out sectarian civil war.

The combined death toll from Friday's attacks is the deadliest for Baghdad since June 19, when a car bomb killed 87 people near a Shi'ite mosque.

Violence has fallen sharply across Iraq, with the number of attacks down 60 per cent since last June.

The declining violence has been attributed to 30,000 extra US troops, which became fully deployed last June, and the growth of primarily Sunni Arab local police units. -- REUTERS, AFP

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