BAGHDAD, (Reuters) – At least four car bombs killed 112 people in Baghdad yesterday, leaving charred buses and scattered body parts in a blow to the government’s efforts to show it can defend Iraqis before U.S. troops withdraw in 2011.
The blasts could undermine Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s claims to have brought security to Iraq as he campaigns for a March 7 election and also rattle foreign oil executives due in Baghdad this week for an auction of oilfield contracts.
In the third coordinated attack on Baghdad in four months, bombs hit areas near justice buildings, a finance ministry office and a police checkpoint, symbols of government authority and all supposedly under tight security after earlier bombs.
“We had entered a shop seconds before the blast, the ceiling caved in on us, and we lost consciousness. Then I heard screams and sirens all around,” said Mohammed Abdul Ridha, one of the 425 wounded in the series of at least four blasts.
Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi gave a lower death toll of 63. It was not possible to explain the discrepancy with the figures provided by police sources.
The Health Ministry said it was difficult to determine the exact number because many bodies had been blown to pieces.
Smoke billowed and sirens wailed as emergency workers removed the dead in black body bags. Blood splattered the street next to burnt-out minibuses, police vehicles and dozens of crumpled cars at one site, where the blast left a huge crater.
Similar attacks in the past have been blamed on Sunni Islamist insurgents such as al Qaeda and the outlawed Baath party of executed dictator Saddam Hussein.
Maliki yesterday repeated those accusations and described the bombings as an attempt by enemies to destabilise Iraq after parliament on Sunday ended an impasse over an election law, allowing national elections to be held next year.
