Many Iraqis link London attacks to western policy in Iraq

"(US President George W.) Bush and (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair say Iraq is the battleground in the fight against terrorism, and they say they need to fight here to stop violence from spreading to their own homes," said Soad Moham-med, a 40-year-old teacher in a Sunni district of Baghdad.

"But it's precisely because of what they're doing in Iraq that they now face violence at home," she said.

"They are reaping the fruit of what they sowed," she added.

Khaled Yassin, a 30-year-old taxi driver, said: "Yesterday I was amazed when I got home from work to hear about bombings at the top of the news which, for once, weren't in Baghdad," adding that he even joked with his wife that the terrorists had moved to London because the day had been relatively quiet in the Iraqi capital.

Attacks in Baghdad currently average about 20 a day, including both bombings and shootings, while car bombs average eight a week, down 50 percent from last month, according to a senior US military officer.

For Karrar Mohsen, 33, shopping in the Shia Al-Shuala district of town, the London attacks prove that if Westerners "think they can escape terrorism, they are very much mistaken," he said.

"Seeing innocent people on their way to work being killed makes me sad," but "they are now drinking from the same bitter cup as we," he said.

"It's US and British policy towards the Arab world and towards Iraq which is to blame for the attack in London," said Mustafa Mohammed, 45, selling furniture in the Sunni district of Al-Adhamiyah.