Bombs hit heart of Baghdad

BAGHDAD — Twin suicide bombings in the heart of a busy section of downtown Baghdad killed 147 people Sunday in an apparent attempt to undermine Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government at a time of rising political tensions over crucial national elections due to be held in January.

The attacks outside the Justice Ministry and the Baghdad Provincial Council headquarters injured an additional 700 people. They were the deadliest bombings in Iraq since April, 2007, when 183 were killed in Baghdad.

The midmorning explosions, in a closely guarded area packed with government buildings, served as a fresh reminder that although U.S. attention has shifted in large part to Afghanistan, Iraq remains a volatile place. Concerns are high it could disintegrate into chaos once again even before U.S. forces leave.

Iraqi security forces have been fully in charge since U.S. troops withdrew from Iraqi cities in June.

The explosions ripped through traffic and buildings a block apart on a busy workday, hurling vehicles through the air, incinerating drivers and burning office workers at their desks.

Similar attacks

The mayhem was reminiscent of devastating attacks on Aug. 19 against the Foreign and Finance ministries in which more than 100 people died, but Baghdad had been relatively calm since then, prompting some government officials to boast Iraqi security forces were now firmly in control.

The new attacks came as Iraqi political leaders face deadlock over a new law to regulate the election due to be held Jan. 16, and many Iraqis felt it was no accident violence returned to their streets at a time when their politicians are at odds.

Election officials have warned if there is no agreement on a law soon, they may have to delay the elections, which could also delay the planned withdrawal of U.S. troops, scheduled to take place after the polling.

Al-Maliki visited the site of the bombings and accused remnants of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime and the militant group al-Qaida in Iraq of seeking to "create chaos in the country, derail the political process and prevent the parliamentary elections," according to a statement from his office.

It is al-Maliki who stands to lose the most from a security breakdown, because he is campaigning to keep his job on his record as the leader who restored a good measure of security to Iraq after the sectarian warfare that raged a few years back. Overall, violence is down 90 percent since the peak of 2006, U.S. commanders say.

A resumption of violence could also force President Obama to make tough decisions about his promises to withdraw U.S. troops. In Washington, D.C., Obama issued a strongly worded statement condemning "these outrageous attacks on the Iraqi people.

Troop allocations

Current plans call for the 120,000 U.S. troops still here to remain until one to two months after the election, at which point they would rapidly draw down. After August 2010, the deadline set by Obama for the departure of all U.S. combat forces, a force of roughly 50,000 troops, mostly logistics and trainers, would remain behind until the end of 2011, the deadline for all U.S. troops to be gone under the terms of the U.S.-Iraqi security pact.

A delay in the election might force a delay in the withdrawal of combat forces, Michele Flournoy, undersecretary of defense for policy, testified at a congressional hearing last week. The security pact stipulates combat troops must be gone from Iraq by the end of 2010.

A team of U.S. soldiers wearing Explosives Ordinance Disposal armbands turned up at the site of Sunday's bombings. The Iraqi authorities requested help with forensics, because that is a skill the Iraqis still lack, a U.S. military spokesman said.

The Baghdad Provincial Council is on a block off-limits to normal traffic, with checkpoints at either end, and the Justice Ministry is just beyond it.

Yet somehow two suicide bombers managed to reach their destinations.

"This is the question we are asking," said Mahmoud Nabil, 36, who witnessed the bombings from his office between the two buildings. "There are checkpoints here searching everyone, so how could this have happened?"