The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Baghdad

The death toll from the twin bomb attack in a Baghad commercial district a day ago surged to 68, a security source in the interior ministry told AFP on Friday.

On Thursday, a roadside bomb followed by a suicide attack ripped through Al-Atar Street in central Baghdad's Karada neighbourhood, also wounding 154 people, according to the latest figures from security and medical sources.

The US military said the attack took place at around 7:00 pm (1600 GMT).

"Iraqi security forces and emergency responders were first on the scene. Coalition forces arrived after and are coordinating with them on how many Iraqi citizens were killed and wounded in the attack," the military said in a statement.

"This terrorist attack was a senseless act of violence directed against the Iraqi people," said US chief of staff Colonel Allen Batschelet.

The bombings come after Iraq witnessed a sharp rise in the number of people killed in violence, following a six month period in which the death toll fell.

In February the number of Iraqis killed rose by 33 percent over the previous month, reversing a six-month trend of fewer casualties, ministerial figures obtained by AFP showed on March 1.

Meanwhile, Some 2,000 U.S. soldiers are being withdrawn from Baghdad as part of a planned reduction of U.S. forces in Iraq, the U.S. military said on Thursday.

The 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, was part of the extra 30,000 soldiers sent last year to stop savage sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims that had threatened to tip the country into a civil war.

"I can state that (they) are leaving and there is no replacement brigade combat team coming in," U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Stover told Reuters.

Since the 30,000 troops became fully deployed in mid-2007, violence has dropped by 60 percent, prompting General David Petraeus, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, to announce that five of 20 brigades would be pulled out by July 2008.

There are more than 150,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, with about 34,500 deployed in the Iraqi capital. The drawdown is expected to cut the overall total by about 20,000.