Two bombs were almost simultaneously detonated in a crowded central area of Baghdad Thursday evening killing 68 people and wounding at least 120, Reuters reports. Many people were doing their end-of-the week shopping before the start of the Muslim holiday. The Iraqi security forces blame the two bomb attacks on al Qaeda.

The blasts occurred in the same day when the U.S. military announced the withdrawal of 2,000 troops from Baghdad.

The first explosion took place shortly before 7 p.m., on the al-Attar street in the commercial district of Karrada, a mainly Shiite neighborhood believed to be one of the safer areas in the Iraqi capital. It was an improvised roadside bomb.

The second blast occurred 10 minutes after the first one, after the security forces, ambulances and crowds gathered to rescue the wounded. A suicide bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives detonated a more powerful device, officials say.

“Terrorists of the al Qaeda network targeted innocent people again,” Major-General Qassim Moussawi, spokesman for Iraqi security operations in Baghdad, told state TV. He said that among the victims there were women and children. There were no immediate claims of responsibility over the attacks. The victims were from all Iraq’s sects and ethnic groups, Moussawi said.

The attacks were the bloodiest in Baghdad since February, when two women blew themselves up at two pet markets in Baghdad, claiming the lives of almost 100 people.

On Monday, two bomb attacks in central and eastern Baghdad killed 19 people, despite the increased security measures imposed due to the visit of the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

A 27-year old man, Walaa Ahmed Ali, who owns a barbershop near al-Attar street said the attackers are misled into thinking that they are doing a good thing by killing innocent people and committing suicide.

“A lot of innocent people were killed tonight. They are targeting us because they believe we are infidels -- that we are going to hell and they are going to heaven when they kill us. They are brainwashed,” said Ali, as quoted by the Washington Post.