At least 62 killed as five car bombs rock Baghdad

BAGHDAD: At least 62 people were killed and 105 wounded when five powerful car bombs rocked Baghdad on Tuesday, an interior ministry official told AFP.

 

Smoke billows following an explosion in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on December 8, 2009. – AFP

Smoke billows following an explosion in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on December 8, 2009. – AFP

Two car bombs exploded near the labour and interior ministries, a security official said. A suicide attacker driving a car also struck a police patrol in Dora, in southern Baghdad, causing 15 of the deaths, an interior ministry official said.

 

The first explosion in central Baghdad was heard at 10.25 am (0725 GMT) with a second blast within seconds and a third one minute later.

 

Sporadic gunfire then sounded and the sirens of emergency vehicles were also heard, with helicopters taking to the skies soon afterwards.

 

The interior ministry official said 12 of those killed by the suicide attacker in Dora were students at a nearby technical college. The remaining three victims were policemen working at the checkpoint.

 

Violence across Iraq dropped dramatically last month, with the fewest deaths in attacks since the US-led invasion of 2003. Official figures showed a total of 122 people were killed in November.

 

However the Baghdad government and the US military have warned of a rise in attacks in the run up to the election, which is expected to take place in February.

 

The threat of political violence linked to the poll is a major concern after bloody attacks in Baghdad in August and October that killed more than 250 people.

 

The attacks, including truck bombings outside the finance, foreign and justice ministries, punctured confidence in the Iraqi security forces.

 

‘We believe that there will be an attempt to conduct more attacks between now and the election,’ General Ray Odierno, the top US commander in Iraq, said in November.

 

Tuesday’s bombings came two days after the war-torn country’s parliament passed a law governing the election, the second national ballot since the ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

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