Update: The number of deceased is now over 70

Around 50 people, a number which will undoubtedly rise today, were killed as a female suicide bomber detonated herself in a popular animal market. Twenty minutes later, a second explosion occurred in a crowded market in east Baghdad. Ghazil market is a popular spectacle for Baghdadis and only opens on Fridays. The death toll is the largest Iraq’s capital has seen since the second half of 2007.

Following the military escalation in Baghdad, correspondents say a fragile sense of normality had returned. Contributing to this false sense of security was a ceasefire announced by the Medhi Army in August, as well as a deal worked out with local Sunni militias to kill al-Qaeda militants for the Americans. Friday’s dual blasts seem to have shattered that confidence. “We have a disaster here,” said an official at Baghdad’s Kindi hospital. “There are too many bodies to count.”

source