Updated at 12:14 p.m. EDT, Aug. 21, 2009
A series of explosions rocked Baghdad, killing at least 101 people and wounding 1,203 more just a day after the Baghdad Operations Command announced a new security plan. Elsewhere in Iraq, at least six Iraqis were killed and 20 more were wounded in other attacks. U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill expressed his disgust while on a visit to Kirkuk. He called the attackers “psychopathic.” Meanwhile, a U.S. soldier was killed in combat near Diwaniya.
What appears to be a coordinated attack on Baghdad’s municipal buildings took place shortly after 10:00 a.m. local time. The New York Times reported that at least 101 were killed across the capital, while the Baghdad Operations Command reported as many as 1,203 injured. Most of the casualties were civilian.
The first blast was heard at the finance ministry in Bab al-Muadham; that blast took at least 35 lives and wounded 228 others. The blast also demolished a bridge. Another bombing took place a few minutes later near the foreign ministry building in the Green Zone, killing at least 60 people and wounding 315 more. Six U.S. soldiers were seen taking pictures of that wreckage but they are not allowed to help until the Iraqi government officially asks for it.
Four people were wounded in a mortar attack in Kifah, while mortars in Salhiyah wounded two more people. Ten civilians were wounded when a pair of roadside bombs blew up near Mustansiriya University. A roadside bomb between the Bayaa and Amil neighborhoods left two dead and at least one wounded.
Two car bombers were stopped and arrested in Mansour. A large truck bomb was defused in Salhiyah. Mortar fire was reported in the Green Zone. Officials at the health ministry denied their building was the target of a mortar attack. Bombs in Waziriya and Qahira left no casualties. A security official later said that only two bombings occurred in the city, but a blast was also heard near the Reuters office in Karrada.
Five people were wounded, including two policemen, during a blast in Khaldiya.
Two cops were wounded when a suicide car bomber attacked their Ramadi checkpoint.
Gunmen in Kirkuk killed a civilian. The body of a Christian pediatrician was discovered a day after he was kidnapped; the Christian man who was reported killed yesterday was apparently on scene during the abduction.
One Iraqi soldier was killed and four more were wounded when they struck a roadside bomb near Mosul in Tal al-Salat.
In Mosul, police dogs found a bomb factory. One policeman was killed and three more were wounded in clashes with gunmen. Six people were wounded in a bomb blast. Gunmen killed a policemen.
Sixteen detainees from Diyala province, who were jailed in Basra, were released.
Nine suspects were arrested in Amara.
