Triple explosions strike Baghdad apartment buildings, killing at least 34

Explosions hit Baghdad apartments, 34 dead

BAGHDAD — Massive bombs hit apartment buildings across Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 34 people and wounding more than 100 in the latest sign that Iraq’s fragile security could dissolve in the chaos of the country’s unresolved election.

It was the fourth attack with multiple casualties across Iraq in five days, a spate of violence that has claimed more than 100 lives since Friday. The violence has spiked as political leaders scramble to secure enough support to form a government after the March 7 elections failed to produce a clear winner.

Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, an Iraqi military spokesman for Baghdad’s operations command center, said the attackers detonated seven blasts across the capital, using homemade bombs and, in one case, a car packed with explosives.

“There are casualties, and we are counting them right now with the Health Ministry,” al-Moussawi said.

Police and medical officials said the death toll was at least 34, and that women and children were among the dead. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to release information publicly.

The explosions started at about 9:30 a.m. at a residential building in the Shula area of northwest Baghdad That was followed by a car bomb about a mile away in an intersection, which damaged nearby buildings, according to police and hospital officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the press.

A few minutes later, at 9:45 a.m. a bomb left in a plastic bag exploded at a restaurant in the Allawi district downtown, near the government’s Culture Ministry.

College student Ali Hussein, 22, was riding the bus to school when one of the Shula bombs exploded. He described “people running in different directions with fear.”

“Cars began to collide with one another in street because of fear,” said Hussein, who fled for home after the blast. “We saw a cloud of fire and black smoke raising from a building at the explosion site, and while we were terrified by this explosion, another one took place.”

On Monday, a Shiite couple and four of their children were gunned down in their home outside Baghdad, while more than 40 were killed Sunday after suicide attackers detonated three car bombs near embassies in Baghdad. On Friday, gunmen went house-to-house in a Sunni area south of Baghdad, killing 24 villagers execution-style.

Associated Press Writers Hamid Ahmed, David Rising and Elizabeth A. Kennedy contributed to this report.