Baghdad, April 05: Suicide attackers detonated three car bombs near embassies in Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 35 people and wounding more than 200 in back-to-back attacks, authorities said.
The bombings came two days after a chilling execution-style attack by gunmen who raided homes south of Baghdad, killing 24 people, many of them believed to be anti-al-Qaida fighters.
The rise in bloodshed after a relative lull deepened fears that insurgents will seize on the political turmoil after last month’s indecisive parliamentary elections to sow further instability.
Sunday’s blasts went off within minutes of each other _ one near the Iranian Embassy and two others in an area that houses several embassies, including the Egyptian Consulate and German Embassy, said Maj Gen Qassim al-Moussawi, a spokesman for the city’s operations command centre.
Security forces shot and killed a man wearing a suicide belt before he could detonate a fourth bomb-rigged car near the former Germany Embassy, which is now a bank, al-Moussawi said.
It was not immediately clear how many people from the embassies were among the victims.
Several Iraqi guards at the Egyptian Consulate and one Iraqi guard at the German Embassy were killed, authorities said.
Guards at the Egyptian Consulate opened fire on one of the attackers as he drove toward them, but were unable to stop him before the blast hit concrete barriers, al-Moussawi said.
Four Egyptians working at the consulate were wounded by shrapnel, according to Egypt’s Foreign Ministry.
Multiple, coordinated bombings in the capital have become a hallmark of al-Qaida in Iraq.
The force of the blasts shook buildings and rattled windows in the center of the capital.
A television channel news footage showed civilians outside the Iranian Embassy loading casualties into police vehicles and ambulances. Stunned victims in bloody clothes fled the scene as smoke rose.
One man was cradling a small girl wearing a white dress in his arms.
Hassan Karim, 32, who owns a clothing shop in Baghdad, said the first blast shattered windows and knocked all the shelves off the walls.
He ran outside after the second explosion just minutes later.
“I saw children screaming while their mothers held their hands or clutched them to their chest,” he said.
—Agencies