Baghdad, August 20: Iraqi forces were on high alert on Thursday after twin truck bombs killed 95 people and wounded almost 600 in Baghdad’s bloodiest day in 18 months.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki late Wednesday vowed to overhaul the country’s security while Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, whose Ministry compound was among the buildings targeted, said there had been “serious security breaches”.
The explosions came just minutes apart outside government ministries while a car bombing and spate of mortar attacks added to the carnage in the capital, which has been under Iraqi security control since US troops withdrew from towns and cities in the conflict-torn country at the end of June.
Maliki met with his security and intelligence officials on Wednesday during which a number of “important decisions and fast measures” were agreed upon to sustain security and stability in Baghdad, his office said in a statement.
Baghdad military command announced the arrest of 10 officers from the army and police who were responsible for security in the two districts hit by the attacks. No details were given.
The international community, led by the UN Security Council, condemned the blasts, which came on the sixth anniversary of a bombing on the UN compound in Baghdad that killed special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 others.
The White House described the attacks as “senseless violence” but the Pentagon noted that they would not affect the US military’s plans to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen condemned the twin bombings as “cowardly and pointless attacks,” vowing to help fight the scourge of terrorism.
An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said 563 people were wounded in the truck bombs, one of which targeted the Foreign Ministry just outside the heavily fortified Green Zone and the other the nearby Finance Ministry, across the Tigris river.
“This was a calculated, deliberate attack on the restoration of normal life,” Zebari said. “My assessment is it’s an attack on the normalisation of life in Baghdad.”
He acknowledged that there had been “some serious, serious security breaches,” and said that while he couldn’t say who was behind the attack, its timing was “archetypal of al Qaeda.”
In an earlier statement, Maliki said the bombings were “a desperate attempt to derail the political process and affect the parliamentary elections,” planned to take place in January 2010.
Analysts said that the attacks shattered attempts by Maliki to portray himself as a guardian of security ahead of the January elections.
Iraqis pointed the finger at their security forces, which in turn blamed members of executed former dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime.
A car bomb, meanwhile, hit a market in western Baghdad, while two mortar bombs 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 1, 2008, when bombs at Baghdad pet markets killed 98 people.
-Agencies