Date: Last updated at 12:26 AM on 20th August 2009
By Mail Foreign Service
A series of blasts in Baghdad killed 95 and wounded 536 yesterday.
In Iraq's bloodiest day this year, home forces accepted blame for the security breach after U.S. troops withdrew from urban centres in June.
At least six blasts struck near government ministries and other targets at the heart of Iraq's Shi'ite-led administration.
Analysts said the co-ordinated attacks were a message 'to show the world the insurgents are still there'.
Major General Qassim al-Moussawi, Baghdad's security spokesman, told Iraqi TV: 'This operation shows negligence, and is considered a security breach for which Iraqi forces must take most of the blame.'
The Iraqi government said this month that most of the city's blast walls would be removed within 40 days, a sign of confidence in its security forces before elections in January.
The blasts were a rare example of a co-ordinated attack on heavily guarded targets.
One blast, a massive truck bomb close to a security checkpoint leading to the heavily-fortified Green Zone, blew out the windows of the foreign ministry, sending shards of glass through offices, killing dozens.
'The windows of the foreign ministry shattered, slaughtering the people inside.
'I could see ministry workers, journalists and security guards among the dead,' said a distraught ministry employee known as Asia.
'Suddenly a powerful blast shook the building and glass flew ... Most employees were wounded by the flying glass and others, including myself, suffered concussion ... I awoke with blood all over my face,' said ministry worker Batoul al-Amri.
Another truck bomb in Baghdad's Waziriya district near the finance ministry killed at least 28 and caused widespread destruction. The Baghdad provincial government building also came under mortar attack, as did the Salhiya district in central Baghdad, home to army bases and a television station police said.
Another explosion was close enough to Reuters' offices in central Baghdad's Karrada district to burst open windows and doors. In south Baghdad's Bayaa district, a blast killed two people and wounded five. It was not yet immediately clear where the other deaths among the 25 people killed occurred.
The attacks could undermine confidence in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki before the parliamentary election. In a statement, Mr Maliki called for a review of security plans, but added the attacks were aimed at 'raising doubts about our armed forces, which have proven themselves very capable of confronting terrorists'.
However, analysts and members of the public disagreed.
'They are meant to convey a message to Iraqis and the world that insurgents are still there and can block the political process,' said analyst Hameed Fadhel of Baghdad University.
'Today's attacks reveal a major deficiency and weakness of the security forces.
'They were organised and huge,' he added. No group has claimed responsibility for the onslaught, but Mr Moussawi said two members of Al Qaeda were arrested when another bomb was intercepted.
Iraqi television later showed a truck loaded with water tankers stuffed with explosives that had been disarmed.
It was unclear if it was the same vehicle as in the arrest.
Sunni Islamist groups like Al Qaeda have been blamed for a series of blasts in the last two months at mostly Shi'ite venues such as mosques in both the capital and the north of Iraq.
Iraqi security forces collaborated with bombers: FM
Aug 22 06:59 AM US/Eastern
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on Saturday alleged there had been collaboration between Iraqi security forces and the insurgents whose massive truck bombings killed 95 people three days ago.
Zebari, whose ministry lost 32 workers in the blast at its headquarters, admitted the attacks were a serious security setback and that the government had failed to protect its citizens.
Wednesday's bombings at the ministeries of foreign affairs and finance culminated in the worst day of violence seen in the conflict-hit country in 18 months, with around 600 people also wounded.
"How could this truck pass unless there is collaboration?" Zebari told reporters in Baghdad.
"There was collaboration between security forces and the terrorist group to facilitate the passing of this truck through such a sensitive area."
Zebari said Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had ordered the arrest of 11 senior security officers on Thursday so they could be questioned on how a four-tonne truck had entered an area where even two-tonne vehicles were barred.
He also made the first official admission that the blasts signalled that security gains made in the past year were under serious strain following a series of deadly attacks in recent months.
"They have been moving their attacks... now they have focused on their main concern, their main attention, on Baghdad and this is a dangerous and a serious development and a security setback," said Zebari.
"This has been going on for the last two months. Every week, every two weeks we see a wave of these bombings and killings of innocent people."
Premier Maliki said after Wednesday's bombings that the attacks were "a desperate attempt to derail the political process and affect the parliamentary elections," planned for January 2010.
But Zebari went further and called for a re-appraisal of the country's entire security apparatus as it was not, he said, obtaining sufficient intelligence to counter the enemy threat.
"The Iraqi government and security forces are doing their best but our enemy is mobile so we know how hard it is," he said.
"Sometimes you can't fight these people with checkpoints. You should be mobile. You should go after them you, disrupt and penetrate their network to get human information. This is the key," he added.
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