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BAGHDAD, Iraaq (AP) – Two explosions ripped apart government buildings in Baghdad for the second time in two months, killing at least 132, wounding 520 and demonstrating again that insurgents are able to mount large-scale attacks in the heart of the Iraqi capital.
Slaughter ... an Iraqi weeps as rescuers search for survivors
in the devastated Justice Ministry building. (Photo: AP)
The blasts, one from a car bomb and the other possibly a truck bomb, targeted the Justice Ministry and a provincial government office.
About 600 people were wounded in the near-simultaneous attacks at about 10.30 am (Baghdad time), which left streets littered with charred bodies and torn-off limbs.
The blasts, which the Iraqi Government said had al-Qaeda’s “signature”, destroyed dozens of cars and shattered pipes, spewing dirty water into the bloodied streets.
Authorities closed roads leading to the bomb sites as fire engines and ambulances struggled through thick traffic to reach the blazing buildings.
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(TimesOnline) – A senior diplomat has become the first US official to resign in protest at the war in Afghanistan, in a move that has shaken the White House, according to reports.
Matthew Hoh, 36, a former captain in the Marine Corps who fought in Iraq before joining the US State Department, resigned from his post as the senior US civilian in Zabul province, a Taleban stronghold in Afghanistan. He said that he believed the war only fuelled the insurgency, the Washington Post reports.
“I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan,” Mr Hoh wrote in a four page resignation letter, dated September 10.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."