At least 95 Iraqis were killed and 563 wounded in a string of massive bombings across Baghdad that took less than an hour. The attacks were the deadliest in weeks, and just the latest in a string of rising attacks across the nation that have imperiled the US claims of military “progress.”
The deadliest of the apparently coordinated attacks came at the Foreign Ministry, next to the Green Zone, where a truck bomb leveled buildings and killed at least 59, wounding 250. The truckload of explosives was parked across the street in an unguarded lot. Other attacks hit high profile targets as well, such as the Finance Ministry.
Major General Moussawi, the security spokesman for the capital, conceded that the string of attacks showed “negligence” on the part of the security apparatus, and indeed the claims of major security gains make it hard to imagine so many heavily guarded targets could be hit insuch a short time.
US Ambassador Christopher Hill, who was in Kirkuk at the time of the attacks, termed the chaos “disgusting,” and insisted of the attackers “they’re just psychopathic.” So far no one has claimed credit for the attacks, but Iraqi officials blamed the remnants of the Ba’athist regime ousted over six years ago in the US invasion.