Baghdad: Two powerful car bombs exploded in downtown Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 136 people in an apparent attempt to target the fragile city's government offices, Iraqi medical officials and authorities said.
While violence has dropped dramatically in the country since the height of the sectarian tensions, such bombings like Sunday's demonstrate the precarious nature of the security gains and the insurgency's abilities to still pull off devastating attacks in the heart of what is supposed to be one of Baghdad's most secure areas.
The explosions come as Iraq is preparing for elections scheduled this January, and many Iraqi officials have warned that violence by insurgents intent on making the country appear unstable could rise.
The blasts, which rivalled coordinated blasts against two government ministries in August that killed more than 100 people, also appeared to be a blow to Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki who has staked his reputation and re-election hopes on returning security to the country.
The area is just a few hundred yards from the heavily protected Green Zone that houses the US Embassy as well as the prime minister's offices. The street where the blasts occurred was just reopened to vehicle traffic a few months ago, in what was supposed to be a sign that safety was returning to the once devastated city.
"This is a political struggle, the price of which we are paying," said a Shiite member of the Baghdad Provincial Council, Mohammad Al Rubaiey. He said at least 25 members of the provincial council staff were killed in the blasts and that the wounded were still being taken to the hospital. "Every politician is responsible and even the government is responsible, as well as security leaders."
State institutions
Sunday's explosions, which also injured at least 300 people, went off less than a minute apart near two prominent government institutions — the Ministry of Justice and the headquarters of the Baghdad provincial administration — in a neighbourhood that houses a number of government institutions. Video images captured on a cell phone showed the second blast going off in a massive ball of flames, followed by a burst of machine gun fire.
Two US security contractors were injured in the blasts, but no US embassy personnel were killed, said Philip Frayne, an embassy spokesman in Baghdad. Frayne could not provide details about who the contractors worked for, or the nature of their injuries.
Blast saves abductee
An Iraqi man who had been kidnapped escaped his abductors yesterday because of the twin bombings that rocked central Baghdad, police said.
The man had been seized and bundled into the boot of a car, which then happened to be near the Baghdad provincial government offices when one of the bombs went off.
The blast wounded the vehicle's driver, forcing him to require medical attention, and killed two other passengers.
According to a police officer at the scene, the man alerted security forces to his presence in the boot by kicking it repeatedly from the inside.
