From The BBC News

At least 100 people have been killed in two separate attacks on busy street markets in Baghdad and Baquba. Eighty-eight people died and 160 were injured in a double car bombing at a second-hand clothes market in Baghdad, the worst such attack this year.

A further 12 died in a bomb and mortar attack in the nearby city of Baquba. The attacks came as the first of over 21,000 extra US troops ordered by US President George W Bush arrived in Baghdad on a mission to boost security.

The 3,200 troops sent to Baghdad are the advance guard of a 21,500-strong deployment ordered by the president this month.

Choked with traffic

The first big attack on Monday came in the Haraj market, which sells second-hand clothing and DVDs, shortly after midday (0900 GMT). Columns of thick smoke immediately covered the area.

One unconfirmed account of the attacks said that a bomb in a parked car was followed seconds later by a suicide bomber ploughing his car into the terrified crowd.

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