Washington - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the use of two mentally retarded women to carry out the suicide attacks in Baghdad Friday that killed dozens of people underscores al-Qaeda's "absolute bankruptcy and brutality.""The Iraqi people have been right to turn against these terrible, violent people in their midst who will do anything," Rice said. "And I hope that it affirms for them how right they are to have turned against the foreign fighters of al-Qaeda."
The twin blasts in popular pet markets in Baghdad on Friday killed at least 69 people and left 180 wounded in the deadliest attack in the capital city since the US troop buildup came into full force last summer.
The first blast struck central Baghdad's al-Ghazl pet market, where at 44 people died. The second bombing, at an exotic bird market, claimed the lives of at least 25 people.
General Kasim Atta, the spokesman for Iraqi military operations in Baghdad, said the two perpetrators were mentally retarded women loaded with explosives that were remotely detonated.
The United Nations and European Union condemned the bombings.
