BAGHDAD, Feb 12: Devastating bomb attacks ripped through two Baghdad markets on Monday, killing at least 79 people.

The blasts were timed to mark the end of a national 15-minute pause for reflection called by Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki on the first anniversary of the demolition of a Shia shrine by bombers.

They also struck Shia districts on a day when Maliki's security forces had launched a massive security sweep designed to halt apparently sectarian massacre.

A defence official said at least 79 people were killed and more than 165 wounded.

Traders at the Shorja market, battling intense flames to save their stock, said a car bomb had detonated in a garage beneath a multi-storey wholesale menswear market.

Interior ministry operations director Brig-Gen Abdel Karim Khalaf said two more car bombs had been placed at intervals in the district, spreading devastation for 700 metres. A second explosion ripped through shoppers in Haraj market.

Three suspects, two of them foreigners, have been arrested, Brig-Gen Khalaf said.

Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier confirmed to reporters that two German citizens have been missing in Iraq since last week.“It cannot be ruled out that we are talking about a forced kidnapping,” he said. —AFP