A series of explosions rocked the capital of Iraq on April 4, 2010. Despite claims from US imperialism and its agents in Iraq that the war is over, people are still dying from violence every week in this middle-eastern occupied state.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
23:32 Mecca time, 20:32 GMT
Deadly blasts hit Baghdad embassies
At least 42 people have been killed and 224 others wounded in a series of three car bombings across the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
Security officials said the attacks on Sunday targeted foreign diplomatic missions, with blasts occurring near the embassies of Iran, Germany and Egypt.
Major-General Qassim al-Moussawi, an Iraqi security forces spokesman, said two of the bombings occurred in Baghdad's Mansour district, in the west of the capital, while the third blast occurred in Salhiya district, near the Iranian embassy.
At the Egyptian embassy, the bomber rammed his car into a concrete blast wall, causing a three-metre deep crater in the street.
"The car crashed into the blast wall and the guards of the embassy shot the terrorist but he went and blew himself up," al-Moussawi said.
"The same thing happened with the Iranian embassy."
Embassies hit
The authorities said they foiled two other attacks aimed at diplomatic targets by stopping suspected bombers' vehicles and defusing their explosives.
Hasan Kazemi Qomi, the Iranian ambassador, said it was unclear whether his embassy was a target in the attacks.
"The explosion happened at the embassy gate, targeting visitors and Iraqi police," he told the AP news service. "There was some damage to the embassy building but no employees were harmed inside."
After the explosions, smoke could be seen rising above the city as helicopters circled overhead and gunfire echoed through the streets.
The attacks come a day after uniformed gunmen left 25 people deadin the village of Albusaifi just to the south of the capital.
Some of the victims were members of the Iraqi security forces while others were part of local Awakening Councils or Sahwa, which are comprised of Sunni fighters who allied with US forces to combat al-Qaeda in Iraq.
The blasts also come at a time of political uncertaintyfor Iraq following last month's inconclusive parliamentary elections.
Political struggle
Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Baghdad, said the attacks appeared to have confirmed fears that security could deteriorate due to the political instability.
"This has been the real fear, the very fact that the security situation could destabilise simply because of the political negotiations taking place to form a new Iraqi government," Khodr said.
The result of the election has triggered a bout of political wrangling as Iyad Allawi, the former prime minister, tries to form a government after winning a narrow victory in the polls. Analysts say the uncertainty could last for weeks.
"The terrorists seized this time between the end of the elections and the forming of the government to target the political process," said Abdul-Rasoul al-Zaidi, an Iraqi civil defence official.
In the hours before Sunday's blasts, Iraq's Green Zone, site of many international agencies and government buildings in the capital, came under mortar fire.
Meanwhile, a car bomb in the restive northern city of Mosul killed three people and wounded 25 others, including seven policemen thought to be the target of the attack.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Triple car bombing hits Baghdad
Three suicide car bombs have hit the centre of Iraq's capital, Baghdad, in quick succession, killing at least 41.
The attacks, which injured more than 200 others, appear to have been aimed at foreign embassies.
The bombings shatter a period of relative calm after last month's parliamentary elections. No-one has said they organised the attacks.
The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says the insurgents want to send a message that Iraq remains very unstable and unsafe.
On Saturday, gunmen killed 25 people believed to be linked to Sunni militias opposing al-Qaeda in a village south of Baghdad.
Gunshots
The first two bombs went off within about a minute of one another, in Mansour - a fairly smart suburb on the western side of the city, housing many embassies.
The Egyptian, German and Syrian missions were all affected by the blasts.
But security around their buildings is tight, and the brunt of the explosions hit passers-by in the streets, our correspondent says.
Each of the multiple bombings which have hit Baghdad over the past year has been "themed"- clearly with the aim of conveying the message not only that the insurgents can strike several targets simultaneously, but that they can focus on a particular type of target each time.
In August, October and December last year, they carried out co-ordinated attacks on government ministries. In January, it was the turn of the big hotels in central Baghdad.
Now, it seems to be foreign embassies that were singled out for attention by the suicide bombers.
The attacks come at a sensitive moment, with politicians embroiled in trying to form a government which all agree should reach out to regional countries, especially Arab states which have been slow to restore full diplomatic ties with Baghdad.
"I saw children screaming while their mothers held their hands or clutched them to their chest," one man told the Associated Press news agency.
"Cars were crashing into each other in streets, trying to find a way to flee."
The political movement headed by Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi National Congress, said that its headquarters close to the Syrian embassy were also affected by the attack, and that many of it guards and employees were among the casualties.
Another minute or so later, a third suicide bomber blew his car up near the Iranian embassy, closer to the city centre. Here again, many people in nearby streets and buildings were among the dead and injured.
The authorities in Baghdad say security forces shot and killed a man before he could detonate a fourth car bomb near the former Germany embassy, which is now a bank.
A number of Iraqi guards working for foreign missions were among those killed. Egypt said several of its staff were wounded by shrapnel.
Spain said its embassy and the adjacent German mission were also damaged.
Our correspondent says Sunday's attacks bore all the hallmarks of earlier bombings, for which the Islamic State in Iraq - the umbrella group for militant Sunni Islamist insurgents - took responsibility.
But the same organisation vowed to disrupt the general elections in March, which went ahead undeterred.
This was also the first wave of co-ordinated attacks in Baghdad for more than two months, and the magnitude of each explosion was considerably less than the massive bombs that struck government targets last year, our correspondent says.
Those attacks - last August, October and December - killed hundreds of people.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/8602478.stm
Published: 2010/04/04 19:30:25 GMT
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