At least 21 killed in wave of car bombings in Baghdad

Oct 12, 2011, 11:47 GMT

Baghdad - At least 21 people were killed Wednesday in a wave of car bombings in the Iraqi capital, according to security and medical sources.

Over 60 people were injured in the bombings, two of which involved suicide attacks, in central, north and south Baghdad, the sources said.

Four of the bombs exploded outside police stations and at the entrance to the Interior Ministry building in Baghdad, said a spokesman for the ministry, Adel Daham, said.

A fifth car bomb exploded near a police convoy in the mainly Shiite northern district of Al Horiya, according to security sources.

Daham said on state television that Iraqi forces killed six 'terrorists' during their attempts to target police stations in different areas in Baghdad.

'The bombings were mounted in retaliation for the arrest of a large number of al-Qaeda leaders in the past few days by Iraqi security forces,' he said.

No one claimed responsibility for what appeared to be a series of coordinated attacks.

The country's police forces remain the easiest target for attacks since they are lightly armed compared to the army and special anti-terrorism units.

The bombings are the bloodiest in Baghdad since August, when 28 people were killed in a suicide attack in a western Baghdad mosque that was also blamed on al-Qaeda.

Violence in Iraq had steadily dropped after sectarian fighting peaked in 2006. But fear of instability persists as bombings and attacks often targeting security personnel, have recently become an almost daily event.