Six blasts leave 95 dead, 536 wounded, huge destruction across Baghdad
DEBKAfile Special Report
August 19, 2009, 7:27 PM (GMT+02:00)
Terrorists reach into Baghdad's Green Zone seat of government
Several large truck bombs blew up across Baghdad and around its heavily fortified Green Zone, Wednesday, Aug. 19, hitting the Iraqi foreign and finance ministries, followed by a mortar barrage. Buildings were destroyed and windows shattered at the Iraqi parliament and the diplomatic complex inside the Green Zone in the bloodiest terror attack in Iraq this year.
In one blast, a massive truck bomb close to a checkpoint leading into the Green Zone blew glass shards from shattered windows through busy offices killing and wounding scores of people and posting a major challenge to Shiite prime minister Nouri al-Maliki and his security forces.
There was no word on how the terrorists, possibly al Qaeda, according to DEBKAfile military sources, managed to penetrate the most heavily safeguarded area in Iraq, seat of government, embassies and US military headquarters. Another truck bomb in Baghdad's Waziriya district near the finance ministry killed at least 28 people and caused widespread destruction.
Al Qaeda's responsibility for the attack is strongly indicated also by the fact that it occurred on the anniversary of the suicide bombing which killed 22 people at UN headquarters in Baghdad on Aug. 19, 2003 and forced the world organization to shut its Iraq operational center down.
The recent upsurge of attacks in Iraq since US forces exited main urban areas in June has focused mainly on poor Shiite neighborhoods. This one struck at the heart of Iraqi government.
