Death toll from Baghdad blasts up to 155

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The death toll from Sunday’s deadly suicide car bombing attacks near the justice ministry and Baghdad provincial council buildings in Baghdad rose to 155, including women and children, an interior ministry source said. “Rescue teams continued searching for victims under the rubbles in the two sites until the early days of Monday (Oct. 26). The death toll from the blasts rose to 155 while the wounded to 500, including women and children,” the source told IraqiNews.com news agency. “This count of casualties is perhaps final as the rescuers ended their missions,” he added. The source noted that the Baghdad Mayoralty workers and the Baghdad Operations Command (BOC) removed the debris and the 156 vehicles set ablaze from the attack sites, adding some of the vehicles had boarded families and persons who happened to be driving by in the two areas. Baghdad has seen a sanguinary day on Sunday (Oct. 25) after the attacks amid tension and announcements by the Baghdad provincial council to hold a three-day official mourning over the souls of the dead. The health ministry has not issued any final count of the casualties. IraqiNews.com failed to reach an official spokesman or sources there for comments. However, an information source at the Baghdad provincial council said that most of the victims were personnel from the facilities guards and employees. The devastating attacks occurred just hours before Iraq’s top leadership was scheduled to meet with heads of political parties on Sunday and reach a compromise on the disputed election law ahead of a crucial parliamentary vote in January. The explosive-laden vehicles were sitting in parking garages next to the two government building, police said. “They are targeting the government and the political process in the country,” BOC spokesman Maj. General Qassim Atta said. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki toured the blast sites later Sunday. 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. 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. AmR (I) 1