Above: Al Qaeda’s bomb blast

A crowded, predominantly Shi’ite Baghdad shopping area was bombed twice by suspected al Qaeda on Thursday at around 7 in the evening.

The first attack, according to police, was a roadside bomb that was detonated on a street in the central Karadah district. The area was filled with vendors and their customers since Thursday is already weekend for Muslims. Women and children were among the more than 50 casualties; 120 plus more were injured.

The second attack, which came only a few minutes later, was detonated by a suicide bomber as people were making their way around in confusion and panic due to the earlier commotion. Compared to the initial blast, the subsequent bombing proved to be much more powerful.

Only three days ago, two bomb blasts in central and eastern Baghdad killed 19 people. A month ago, two women terrorists bombed populated Baghdad bird markets and killed more than 100 people. Below is a picture of one of the attacked bird market.

Below: After the explosion

“Terrorists of the al Qaeda network targeted innocent people again,” said Major-General Qassim Moussawi, spokesman for Iraqi security operations in Baghdad.

U.S. military officers and Iraqi officials both agree that this was the work of Sunni Islamist al Qaeda, the perpetrator for most large scale terrorist bombings.

Thursday was the same day that the U.S. military planned on withdrawing 2,000 troops from the city. This was part of the proposed reduction of U.S. troops by General David Petraeus, the U.S. military commander in Iraq. Since the arrival of the 30,000 soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, violence has dropped by 60 percent. The 2,000 troops will be coming from that same brigade.

The soldiers were brought to Iraq precisely for the purposing of quelling the sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims.

Conspiracy theorists believe that the attack was timed in absolute perfection – making way for a possible delay in the withdrawal of the 5 U.S. troop brigades from Baghdad. But a U.S. military spokesperson said that the troop reduction will continue as planned and all the 5 brigades will be out of Baghdad by July of this year.