Double bomb attack in Baghdad
Updated on 25 October 2009
At least 132 people ahave been killed and 500 wounded by car bombs near two government buildings in central Baghdad.
The first blast targeted the justice ministry and the second, minutes later, was aimed at the nearby provincial government building.
One witness, Ishtar Talib, said: "A car bomb in al- Salhiya exploded near civilians. No one knows from where it comes and how it comes and arrives here! Where is the government? Where are the security forces and their security devices? Where is the Parliament? What did those people do? Where is the government?"
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, who was in a nearby hotel when the bombs went off, said that he and others around him were showered in shattered glass.
He said he suspected al Qaeda militants or remnants of former dictator Saddam Hussein's regime were behind the attacks.
The street near the provincial government building was flooded with water.
A health ministry official said that Baghdad's hospitals had received 50 bodies and 460 wounded.
More than half the wounded had only minor injuries and were discharged, he said.
American military officials say attacks like these are aimed at reigniting the sectarian conflict that gripped the nation after the 2003 invasion, or at undermining confidence in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki before a parliamentary election next year.
