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Waves of Baghdad blasts kill 97
(Xinhua/Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-19 20:38

Waves of Baghdad blasts kill 97
Burned vehicles lie damaged outside the Foreign Ministry building after a bomb attack in Baghdad, August 19, 2009. [Agencies]

Attack Foiled

Baghdad's security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi said Iraqi forces had foiled another car bomb attack and had arrested two members of al Qaeda.

A truck bomb in Baghdad's Waziriya district near the Finance Ministry killed three people and wounded seven, and caused widespread destruction, police said. Part of a raised highway near the building collapsed, a Reuters witness said.

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Another explosion was close enough to Reuters' offices in central Baghdad's Karrada district to burst open windows and doors. Columns of smoke could be seen rising from several sites.

The Baghdad provincial government building came under mortar attack, police said.

In south Baghdad's Bayaa district, a blast killed two people and wounded five.

Mortars landed in the Salhiya district of central Baghdad, home to army bases and the offices of a national television station.

At least one mortar landed near the United Nations compound in the Green Zone, startling U.N. workers marking the sixth anniversary of the destruction of their previous Baghdad headquarters by a truck bomb which killed envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and other staff, U.N. guards said.