UN ambassador for Iraq slams Baghdad attacks

The UN ambassador for Iraq has condemned recent fatal attacks in the capital, Baghdad.

Nickolay Mladenov, the special representative of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for Iraq, said on Wednesday, “Baghdad today regretfully suffered a series of terrorist attacks. Those who orchestrate such attacks should be condemned by all political, religious and civic leaders in this country.”

Mladenov, who is also the head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), urged Iraqi political leaders to unite against terrorism in the country.

Earlier in the day, more than 30 people lost their lives in a spate of bombings in the Iraqi capital.

According to Iraqi security officials, in the deadliest blast, two car bombs went off outside Iraq’s Foreign Ministry building, killing at least a dozen people, including three policemen, and wounding 22 others.

Five people were killed and 12 others injured in another bomb attack which hit a restaurant in the capital.

Five more people lost their lives and eleven others suffered injuries in a car bomb attack which rocked Khilani Square in Baghdad’s commercial center.

In Jisr Diyala, southeastern Baghdad, at least nine people were killed and 24 others were wounded in a car bomb attack.

In Dora, a bomb went off inside a café, killing two people and wounding six.

In addition, one passer-by was killed and seven other people were injured after a rocket landed in an area in the capital that houses foreign embassies in the Arab country.

The incidents are the latest in a string of attacks across Iraq that have left hundreds of people dead since the beginning of this year.

According to figures compiled by Iraq’s ministries of health, interior and defense and released on January 31, as many as 1,013 people were killed in January, including 795 civilians, 122 soldiers and 96 policemen.

The death toll is the highest since April 2008, when 1,073 people were killed.