95 killed in Baghdad bomb carnage

BAGHDAD: A wave of attacks across Baghdad killed at least 95 people on Wednesday in the worst day of carnage to hit the Iraqi capital in 18
Blasts in Baghdad
Smoke and dust billow into the sky from the scene of a car bomb in front of the foreign ministry in central Baghdad. (AFP)
months and the bloodiest since US troops pulled out of the conflict-torn nation's cities.

An interior ministry official said 563 people were also wounded in attacks that included two massive truck bombings outside government ministries just minutes apart, including one near the heavily fortified Green Zone, a car bombing and a spate of mortar attacks.

"In the two attacks 95 people were killed and 563 wounded," the official said. A previous toll had 75 dead.

It was the deadliest day in Iraq since February 2008, and came on the sixth anniversary of a truck bombing on the UN compound in Baghdad that killed UN special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 others.

Iraqis pointed the finger at their domestic security forces, which in turn blamed members of executed former dictator Saddam Hussein's regime.

"I was in my home with my family when the roof collapsed on us," said Hamid, 46, who lives a few hundred metres (yards) from the foreign ministry compound which was targeted along with the finance ministry.

"The government promised us security would return, but where is the security?"

One truck bomb exploded outside the foreign ministry in a residential area close to the Green Zone, sending plumes of smoke and dust into the air, leaving a crater three metres (10 feet) deep and 10 metres wide filled with the twisted wreckage of dozens of cars and several charred corpses.

The walls of the ministry compound in Salhiyeh district were destroyed and its facade badly damaged, while cars were buckled and burnt for hundreds of metres. Blast walls surrounding the compound were removed two months ago.

The bombing also destroyed water tanks on houses near the ministry, sending water gushing into homes.

Just minutes before, another truck bomb exploded outside the finance ministry in Baghdad's northern neighbourhood of Waziriyah, also destroying part of a nearby bridge, ministry officials said.

The finance ministry said the refrigeration truck that exploded in what it said was a suicide attack had been carrying 1.5 tonnes of explosives and ball bearings "to cause maximum casualties."

It said 13 civil servants in the ministry building had died in the attack.

"We accuse the Baathist alliance of executing these terrorist operations," said Major General Qassim Atta, the spokesman for the Iraqi Army's Baghdad operations, referring to members of Saddam's Baath party.

He added that security forces had arrested two senior al Qaida leaders in the Mansur neighbourhood of western Baghdad, and that a truck carrying one tonne of explosives had been defused near the Cardiac Hospital in Salhiyeh.

A car bomb also hit a market in the western neighbourhood of Bayaa, a defence ministry official said, while two mortar bombs landed in the Green Zone — an area of foreign embassies and government offices — and one exploded outside, a security official said.

Environment Minister Narmin Othman Hasan said a mortar landed on and slightly damaged her house inside the Green Zone.

The attacks — shortly before Muslims are due to begin the holy fasting month of Ramadan later this week — drew the city to a standstill as security forces shot into the air and closed roads, while ambulances struggled to make progress amid traffic jams.

It was the bloodiest day in Iraq since February 1, 2008, when bombs at Baghdad pet markets killed 98 people.

Recent attacks in the capital have appeared to target various ethnic groups in a bid to reignite the sectarian violence which engulfed Iraq in 2006 and 2007.

Wednesday's violence comes exactly six years to the day after a truck bomb struck the UN offices at the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, killing 22 people including de Mello.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was saddened by Wednesday's "appalling" attacks.

"I am saddened that the violence continues, including the appalling string of attacks today in Baghdad which took the lives of scores of innocent people," he said at a ceremony at UN headquarters to mark World Humanitarian Day.

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner pledged Paris's "full support" to Iraq, saying the attacks "targeted symbols of Iraqi sovereignty."

Despite a reduction in violence compared with last year, attacks on security forces and civilians remain common in Baghdad, the restive northern city of Mosul and in the ethnically divided oil city of Kirkuk.