Maliki inspects blasts scene in central Baghdad

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki inspected the scene of the two bombing attacks in al-Salhiyah region in central Baghdad. The premier was accompanied by Chairman of the Baghdad provincial council, Maaeen al-Kadhimy, as well as a number of officials, according to the state-run al-Iraqia satellite channel. A police source had said earlier that sixty-two people were killed and 180 others wounded when two car bombs driven by suicide attackers went off near the justice ministry and the Baghdad provincial council buildings in central Baghdad. “Most of the victims were civilian pedestrians and motorists,” he said. “Employees of the nearby government offices were wounded when the windowpanes were smashed and ceilings destroyed by the powerful explosions,” the source said. “The wounded were rushed by ambulances and civilian vehicles to the hospitals of al-Kindi, al-Yarmuk and Ibn al-Nafis,” he said. He added that the two explosions set a large number of civilian vehicles ablaze, including some that had passengers aboard. A U.S. embassy source had said two explosions, probably two car bombs, occurred near the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, prompting the nearby U.S. embassy to announce a state of emergency as sirens wailed and the staff ran to hideouts lest other explosions should take place. A series of coordinated attacks struck key government organizations, one of them near the green zone on August 19, leaving more than 100 people killed and more than one thousand others wounded. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki later on sent a message to the UN Secretary General and the UN Security Council demanding the “formation of an international panel to investigate the assaults”. The central Baghdad’s heavily-fortified zone is home to the Iraqi government offices, the headquarters of the Iraqi parliament and the U.S. embassy compound and the British embassy. SH (S) 1