Baghdad Car Bombings Kill At Least 118 People!

Car-rigged bombs. A series of car bombs rip through Iraq's capital. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.

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Iraq relying on hocus pocus bomb detection

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Bomb-rigged cars kill at least 118 in Baghdad


Iraqi police and hospital officials say the coordinated series of attacks against government buildings in Baghdad killed at least 118 people and wounded 261.

Three bomb-rigged cars exploded in quick succession Tuesday, striking the Labor Ministry, a court complex and the new site of Iraq's Finance Ministry -- whose previous building was destroyed in an August blast.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to media.

The blasts came as Iraqi officials prepared to announced the date for next year's parliamentary elections — a move the security forces worry could bring an escalation in attacks seeking to discredit the pro-Western government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The core of the attacks hit central Baghdad with three bomb-rigged cars exploding in the span of a few minutes.

The targets were the latest assaults directly at Iraq's authorities: the Labor Ministry building, a court complex near the Iraqi-protected Green Zone and the new site of the Finance Ministry, whose previous building was destroyed in major attacks in August.

"Civilians and security personnel have definitely been killed," Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi told Reuters.

An Iraq Police official put the death toll at 112, with 197 people wounded. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give information to media.

The blasts marked the most serious spate of violence in Baghdad since twin car bombs on Oct. 25 struck outside Baghdad

administration offices, killing at least 155 people.

The breakdown of casualties among the sites was not immediately clear, but the most serious bloodshed had been reported outside the new Finance Ministry building.

About an hour before the Baghdad blasts, a suicide car bomber struck a police patrol in the mostly Sunni district of Dora in southern Baghdad, killing at least four people and injuring five others, said a police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

Children killed at school

A smaller blast, which some police officials said might have involved the accidental explosion of a hidden stockpile of munitions, killed seven children at a school in the Shiite slum of Sadr City on Monday.

Overall violence has dropped sharply around Iraq in the past year, but insurgents have stepped up attacks at government sites.

Rather than stage frequent smaller-scale attacks against soft targets like marketplaces or mosques, insurgent groups like al-Qaida now appear to be aiming for spectacular and less frequent strikes against heavily defended government targets.



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Sources: MSNBC, Rachel Maddow Show, Google Maps