Bomb at Baghdad pet market kills at least 53 - Wounds more than 80

• First blast kills at least eight people and wounds 14 others, though reports differ
  
• Second attack at animal market kills at least 45 people and wounds 80 others
  
• Female attackers were wearing suicide vests, official says

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Female suicide bombers blew themselves up
at two markets in Baghdad, killing at least 53 people and wounded 94
more, authorities told CNN.

The first blast happened about 10:30 a.m. in a central Baghdad market that The Associated Press reports sells birds.

It killed at least eight people and wounded 14 others, officials said,
though casualty figures varied as authorities tried to determine the
scope of the blast.

About half an hour later, another suicide
bomber set off an explosive at an animal market in Baghdad, killing at
least 45 people and wounding 80 others, police said.

The second
bomb detonated at the Al Ghazil pet market, a popular destination where
people buy and sell cats, dogs, monkeys and other animals.

Attackers have struck the market on Fridays -- the only day it's open -- several times previously.

A bombing in January 2007 killed 15 and wounded 52 at the pet market, while an attack last November killed 13 and wounded 58.

The violence ripped through Baghdad after a period during which attacks
and deaths dropped during the U.S.-led increase in troop strength
called the "surge."

There have been female suicide bombers in other recent attacks.

In both of Friday's instances, the attackers were wearing suicide vests
when they blew up, according to Baghdad security plan spokesman Qasim
Atta.

On Thursday, a parked car bomb detonated in a
predominantly Shiite district in Baghdad, killing five civilians and
wounding eight other people, the Interior Ministry said.

The
attack, which occurred in Kadhamiya, happened Thursday afternoon after
a string of roadside bombings that wounded 21 people, according to the
Interior Ministry.

One of them was an improvised bomb near a convoy of the deputy minister of electricity that wounded at least five people.

Also Thursday, a spokesman for the Polish military said Poland will withdraw its troops from Iraq by the end of October.

October 31 will be the last day of the Polish presence in Iraq, Major Dariusz Kacperczyk said, speaking from Warsaw.

There are around 900 Polish troops in the war-torn country, with most
in the Qadisiya capital of Diwaniya, some in Baghdad and others in the
southern city of Kut. Twenty-two soldiers from Poland have lost their
lives during the nearly five year war in Iraq..

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 35 people were killed when a bomb hidden inside a box of birds exploded at a popular pet market in central Baghdad on Friday, police said, the latest strike at one of the capital's most popular gathering places.

Another 75 were wounded in the blast at the crowded Ghazil market, which has been bombed at least three times in the past year. Ambulances and police were trying to evacuate the wounded, witnesses said.

In another attack, eight people were killed and 10 wounded at a separate bird market in southern Baghdad, police said.

While attacks continue to fall across Iraq, the latest blasts underscore U.S. military warnings that a return to the violence that took Iraq to the brink of sectarian civil war is still possible.

Witnesses said ambulances were trying to push through packed streets to get to the scene after the Ghazil blast, one of the deadliest bombings in Baghdad in several months.

Police and civil defense officials were piling wounded into cars and the back of pick-up trucks while U.S. soldiers helped secure the area, witnesses said.