Two car bombs targeting day labourers looking for work exploded within seconds of each other Tuesday on a main square in central Baghdad, killing at least 70 people and wounding more than 150, police said.

The co-ordinated attack in Tayaran Square involved a suicide attacker who drove up to the labourers, pretended to want to hire them, then set off his explosives as they got into his minibus, Lieut. Bilal Ali said. At virtually the same time — 7 a.m. — a bomb exploded in a car parked about 30 metres away.

Iraqis grieve over the bodies of dead relatives in Baghdad, Tuesday. Two bombs detonated where scores of Iraqis were waiting for jobs as day labourers, killing at least 70.
(Karim Kadim/Associated Press)

The blasts set fire to at least 10 other cars, Ali said. Gunfire, possibly from insurgent snipers or a police checkpoint in the area, erupted as people fled the scene.

Iraqis gather on the square early in the morning, soliciting jobs as construction workers, cleaners and painters. They buy breakfast at stands selling tea and egg sandwiches while they wait for potential employers to drive up.

Khalil Ibrahim, 41, a shop owner in the area, was treated at a hospital for shrapnel wounds to his head and back.

"In the first explosion, I saw people falling over, some of them blown apart. When the other bomb went off seconds later, it slammed me into a wall of my store and I fainted," he said.

Tayaran Square is located near several government ministries and a bridge that crosses the Tigris River to the heavily fortified Green Zone, where Iraq's parliament and the U.S. and British embassies are located.

About a kilometre away, two roadside bombs targeting Iraqi police patrols exploded at 8:25 a.m. and 8:40 a.m., wounding two policemen and seven Iraqi civilians, said police Capt. Mohammed Abdul-Ghani.

5 more U.S. troops have died

Also on Tuesday, a television cameraman working for the Associated Press was shot to death by insurgents in the northern city of Mosul. Aswan Ahmed Lutfallah, 35, was covering fighting between insurgents and police when insurgents shot him.

Lutfallah was the second AP cameraman to be shot to death in Mosul in 21 months.

Five more U.S. troops have died in Iraq, including three marines killed in combat in volatile Anbar province, the U.S. command said Tuesday.

On Monday, the three marines, assigned to 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, died of wounds sustained fighting insurgents, according to a statement.

The deaths raised to 51 the number of troops who have died this month. At least 2,939 members of the U.S. military have died since the war began in 2003.