BAGHDAD, March 6: Two large bombs exploded within a few minutes of each other in a crowded Baghdad shopping area on Thursday, killing 55 people on the day that the US military said it was withdrawing 2,000 troops from the Iraqi capital.

Police said a roadside bomb exploded on a commercial street in the central Karrada district where street vendors gather to sell their wares and which many people visit on Thursdays.

Minutes later, after Iraqi security forces and other people had gathered following the initial blast, a suicide bomber detonated a second device, police said.

It was one of the bloodiest days in the capital in recent months, since extra US troops were sent to Iraq to quell raging sectarian violence and commanders embraced new counter-insurgency tactics.

“A roadside bomb exploded in the Karrada area and a second bomb went off after people had gathered there,” said Major-General Qassim Moussawi, spokesman for Iraqi security operations in Baghdad.

A witness at the scene said he had seen people holding body parts. He also saw a woman crying in the street as rescuers searched for her sons.

Dozens of shopfronts were damaged and at least 12 ambulances had raced to the area, the witness said.

The US military said it did not have accurate figures for casualties as its soldiers had arrived on the scene after the wounded had been taken away.

“What isn’t in question is the senselessness of these attacks targeting innocent Iraqis,” said US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Stover.

While violence has subsided across Iraq in recent months, US and Iraqi officials say Al Qaeda, which they blame for most large scale bombings, remains dangerous.

On Monday, two bomb blasts in central and eastern Baghdad killed 19 people, despite an increase in security for the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Last month two women killed 99 people when they detonated explosives in packed markets last month, the bloodiest bombings in the Iraqi capital since last April.

TROOP WITHDRAWAL: The US military said earlier on Thursday about 2,000 US soldiers were being withdrawn from Baghdad as part of a planned reduction of US forces in Iraq.

The 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, was part of the extra 30,000 soldiers sent last year to stop sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims that took the country to the brink of civil war.

However, since the extra troops became fully deployed in mid-2007, violence has dropped by 60 per cent, prompting General David Petraeus, the US military commander in Iraq, to announce that five of 20 brigades would be pulled out by July 2008.

Stover said the unit, which has been based in northeast Baghdad, would not be replaced after it completed its 15-month tour of duty.—Reuters