The Police sources said that around 136 people were killed and more than 550 injured in a blast triggered near the the ministry of justice and the headquarters of the Baghdad provincial administration. The dead bodies were being pulled out from the area by the fire fighters.

One of the employee reported that “The walls collapsed and we had to run out. There are many wounded, and I saw them being taken away. They were pulling victims out of the rubble, and rushing them to ambulances.”

civilian cars were used for bringing in the injured to the hospitals. The roads of the affected area were shut down and ambulances were called in.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said that he suspected Iraq’s former government or the Al-Qaeda behind this attack. He said that “The initial analysis shows that it bears the fingerprints of al-Qaeda and the Baathists”. He continued saying that he was in a nearby hotel when the bombs went off and the buildings glasses were shattered.

Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki said that if the planned meeting of Iraqi leaders to solve a dispute was delayed then “the government … and parliament will lose its legitimacy, that there would be a return to sectarianism”.

An Iraqi analyst Ahmed Rushdi said that pointing towards Al-Qaeda and the former party members and saying that they were responsible is just an Electoral strategy. He said that
“Al-Maliki represents the Dawa party, which is [from] the Shia majority, and we have elections in January. He will say … ‘I’m going to protect you from al-Qaeda and pro-Baathists’, it’s always al-Qaeda and pro-Baathist [elements that are blamed]. There is no talking about security infiltration, or the security failures in the Iraqi government”.

Kurdish MP of the Iraqi parliament Mahmoud Othman said that “This sends two messages, one of them is to the investment conference in Washington held just a few days ago as if to tell investors not to come to Iraq … At the same time I think it may be a message to the meeting today of the political council of national security, they’re trying to solve the problems concerning the elections law. I hope this will urge them to work more than before to solve this problem”.

Condolences were received from around the world and the attacks were condemned. Barack Obama representing US and from Sweden representing the Europe’s condolences.