String of bomb attacks in Baghdad kill 32

BAGHDAD, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- A series of bomb attacks, including a twin massive car bombings, in Baghdad on Sunday killed 32 people and wounded 119 others.



Two deadly car bomb explosions, almost simultaneously, ripped through Baghdad at about 10:15 a.m. local time (0715 GMT). A booby- trapped car parking near an office of Asiacell mobile company in Mansour district in western Baghdad, killing 10 people and wounding 58 others.



Bashar, a Xinhua cameraman at the scene, said the attack was carried out by a suicide car bomber who struck an office of a mobile phone company Asiacell, destroying the company building and a building nearby.



\"I am safe, but it was a very huge blast that collapsed the front part of Asiacell building, and I can see several cars either charred or badly damaged,\" Bashar said, adding that the Iraqi security forces sealed off the area and prevented media workers from approaching the scene.



Rawad, a guard at the mobile phone company, who escaped the blast unhurt, cried and told Xinhua immediately after the attack \" many of my colleagues were either killed or wounded.\"



Later in the day, Rawad said \"I was inside the building when a huge blast rocked the walls, doors and windows...and parts of the building ceilings fell on the heads of the company workers and the customers.\"



\"I ran out to see some of my colleagues (guards of the company) torn apart, one of them lose both of his hands,\" Rawad added.



The interior ministry source refused to say whether the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber or not, saying \"an investigation is under way and we can\'t say it was a suicide attack until we get reports by the police experts.\"



The second car bomb went off outside an office of the Iraqi National Security Ministry near the Adden Square, killing 19 and wounding 53 others, the Interior Ministry source said.



The ministry office was destroyed by the powerful blast, which also badly damaged several nearby houses, the source said.



Also in the day, Saleh Ali al-Allwani, head of the Albu Allwan tribe and an employee in the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, was killed when a sticky bomb attached to his car detonated in the al- Hamdaniyah district in west Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.



Another person accompanying Allwani in his car was critically wounded in the blast. A man and his son were also killed and four others were wounded in a car running on the road, the source added.



Separately, a bomb explosion at a popular market in the al- Nahdha district in central Baghdad wounded three civilians and damaged several nearby shops and stalls, he said.



In the morning, three mortar rounds struck Baghdad\'s heavily fortified Green Zone without causing any casualty, the source said.



The Green Zone, which houses some of the Iraqi government offices and U.S. embassy, has been frequently targeted by insurgents\' mortar and rocket attacks. The roughly 10-square-km zone is located on the west bank of the Tigris River which bisects the Iraqi capital.



The latest wave of violence reflects the challenges that the Iraqi security forces are facing in their struggle to restore stability and normalcy to the Iraqi cities about three weeks after the U.S. military announced the end of their combat mission in Iraq.


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