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Iraq
Series of deadly blasts hit Baghdad
Article published on the 2009-08-19 Latest update 2009-08-19 15:07 TU
Residents and security personnel gather around a crater after a bomb attack outside the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad.
(Photo: Reuters)
In a seemingly coordinated attack, two massive truck bombs exploded only minutes apart on Wednesday morning in Baghdad followed closely by another car bomb and a series of mortar attacks, killing at least 75 people and wounding another 400.
One truck exploded outside the Foreign Ministry headquarters near the Iraqi capital’s Green Zone, an area of foreign embassies and government offices.
The bomb left a crater three metres deep and ten metres in diameter.
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.
The other truck bomb blew up close to the Finance Ministry in the northern Baghdad neighbourhood of Waziriyah, killing at least three people, a police official said, requesting anonymity.
A car bomb also hit a market in the western neighbourhood of Bayaa, a defence ministry official said, while two mortars landed in the Green Zone -- an area of foreign embassies and government offices -- and one exploded outside, a security official said.
It was the bloodiest day in Iraq since February 2008 when bombs at Baghdad pet markets left 98 people dead.
The attacks also coincide with the six-year anniversary of a truck bombing on the UN compound in Baghdad in 2003, which killed special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 other UN employees.
Iraq specialist Sami Ramadani, who teaches at London Metropolitan university told that the blasts were likely the work of forces trying to prevent the US forces from pulling out of Iraq.
Q+A Sami Ramadani
"Whoever is doing it, is wanting the occupation to continue, so they work at a logic backwards. They see who benefits from this, they come with the conclusion that it benefits… those who want the government to be weaker.”
“They [The Americans] want an Iraq ruled by a a government which is allied to the United States.”
“ The occupation has been extremely unpopular. Most Iraqis blame the United States for the thirteen years of sanction and misery followed by more than 6 years of occupation and destruction, massive unemployment, deaths.”
“In a truly free and democratic election you will not get a pro US regime in Baghdad. They would have to go back to a Sadamist type solution in a society backed by US forces.”
