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04/10/2006:

"After blasts, hospital fills with sobs When bombs hit leading Shiite mosque in Baghdad, killing 79, relatives can only grieve and ask, 'Why?'"

Baghdad -- You hear the moans first. They're low and soft, broken sometimes by staccato sobbing.

Then comes the crying and the keening. Sometimes it's just one person. Sometimes two. Sometimes a group of people, family members, hugging and crying and asking the question no one can answer: "Why?"

This was the scene outside the emergency room at the Baghdad Teaching Hospital on Friday. Suicide bombers had struck the Shiite Buratha Mosque, just across the Tigris River to the west, as Friday prayers ended. At least 79 people were killed, and at least 160 were injured. Many of the victims were brought to this hospital.

Family and friends, Iraqi police, commandos and soldiers, all jammed the narrow street leading to the entrance of the emergency room. A steady stream of people walked slowly down the tree-lined street. At the door, uniformed guards checked identifications and searched for weapons.

It was an ideal spot for another suicide bomber.
sfgate.com