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In what was the bloodiest day in Iraq so far this year, two suicide bombings killed more than seventy people yesterday. The first attack took place in the national capital of Baghdad when a suicide bomber detonated explosives near Iraqi national police officers who were handing out aid. At least 25 were killed, six of which were members of the police force. The second and deadliest attack occurred nearly an hour later west of Baqubah, the provincial capital of Diyala, at a local restaurant crowded with Iranian pilgrims. The blast killed 47 people and injured at least 69 more. Two more bombings followed in the cities of Tikrit and Mosul as Iraqi authorities claimed the violence was spurred by their arrest of purported Sunni insurgent leader and al-Qaeda member Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. However, even the U.S. army has speculated previously that al-Baghdadi could be a fictitious figure in the movement. On Friday, more than 60 people were killed and 125 wounded by two suicide bombers near a Shiite shrine in Baghdad. The spate of bombings in the forty eight hours were only the most recent in an ever increasing upsurge in violence in Iraq this month. Between April 16th and April 20th, numerous suicide bombings and mortar attacks claimed the lives of 54 Iraqis.

GUEST: Dahr Jamail, Independent journalist who writes for the Inter Press Service, Le Monde Diplomatique, and Truth Out, Author of Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq