Officials: Twin bombs kill 18 in Baghdad

It was the deadliest attack to rock Iraq since President Barack Obama declared the full withdrawal of U.S. forces at the end of the year.Two police officials said the first explosion, at a music store shortly after 7 p.m., killed two people. The second bomb struck four minutes later, as rescue workers and others rushed to the scene, the officials said.There was no immediate claim of responsibility.Thirty-six people were wounded in the attack, according to a medic at Imam Hussein hospital.All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.I stood outside my shop and saw burning cars and dead bodies on the ground, said Ahmed Jalil, 27, a grocery owner near the attack site in Ur, a Shiite neighborhood in northeast Baghdad. The situation was miserable and I could see wounded people being loaded on police pickups.Todays attack proves that the governments allegations that the security is under control are nothing but baseless allegations and that the tens of checkpoints scattered all over the capital are useless and a waste of resources, Jalil said.