5 large car bombs wrecked havoc in Baghdad on Tuesday which gave an end to the month long calm in the capital ahead of the general election. It is reported that there was at least 101 people dead in the explosions and 182 injured in which most are students.
Two of the car bombs were detonated close to the labour and interior ministries. The first explosion in central Baghdad was heard at 10.25 am (0725 GMT) with a second blast within seconds and a third one minute later.
According to an interior ministry official 12 of the dead in the Dora bomb were students of a technical college which was close to where the bomb had went off.
October was the calmest month in Baghdad with the fewest deaths in attacks since the invasion started in the country in 2003 with only 122 deaths in November.
Baghdad and the US military have warned that they are expecting more attacks in the country as the election which will be in February comes closer.
General Ray Odierno, the top US commander in Iraq, said in November. “We believe that there will be an attempt to conduct more attacks between now and the election,”
Tuesday’s bombings came two days after the war-torn country’s parliament passed a law governing the election, which will be the second national ballot since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein from power.
The United States has 115,000 soldiers in Iraq, but that figure will drop to 50,000 next year as all of its combat troops are pulled out before a complete withdrawal by the end of 2011.
