Officials said the near-simultaneous blasts, which a minister said bore the mark of Al-Qaeda, also wounded 224 people. Witnesses reported mayhem as ambulances and emergency workers raced to the sites of the explosions.

Two blasts were suicide attacks against the Egyptian and Iranian embassies, while a third struck an intersection near the German, Spanish and Syrian missions.

Among the dead were the Egyptian mission's Iraqi head of security and an Iraqi guard at the German embassy.

Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim Atta said security forces had stopped a bomb-laden car in Masbah, central Baghdad, which was apparently going to attack the headquarters of police tasked with protecting embassies.

The driver was arrested and the device was defused, he said.

"It looks like (Al-Qaeda)," Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told AFP. "I really feel it's early, however, unless we ensure the investigation is complete" to confirm who masterminded the bombings, he added.

"They bear the same marks of previous attacks, in the timing, the targeting, the simultaneous attacks on different targets in different places to have maximum impact," Zebari said, referring to co-ordinated bombings in August, October, December and January that killed more than 400 people.

Sitting Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose coalition was runner-up in the March 7 general election, held a meeting of the national security council after the blasts, a statement from his office said.

The two bombs that battered the diplomatic west Baghdad neighbourhood of Mansur were followed soon afterwards by a third huge explosion outside the Iranian embassy in the city centre.

The explosions came within minutes of each other, sparking bursts of gunfire and sending plumes of smoke billowing across the city.

Said Mohammed, who was close to the blast which badly damaged the Egyptian embassy, said guards had tried to stop the attacker.

"Three security guards shouted at the truck to stop moving, and opened fire on the driver," said Mohammed, who then turned to nearby Iraqi army officers in anger and shouted: "How did the truck get here?"

Shards of glass covered the street outside the embassy, the entrance of which was now a crater five metres (16 feet) across.

An AFP correspondent, meanwhile, counted five bodies at the scene of the Iranian embassy blast -- three trapped inside burning cars and two being carried into ambulances. One body had no legs.

"The explosion was really strong," said Abu Ahmed, a taxi driver who was in a shop when the blast happened.

"They never kill ministers, officials or heads of state. They kill taxi drivers, public employees and shopkeepers. How much longer will this last?"

Iran said the attack caused no casualties among its staff.

Germany and the Arab League led international condemnation of the bombings, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying she was "profoundly affected" by the blasts and the Arab League arguing that they sought to destabilise Iraq at a "delicate moment."

The attacks came as Iraqi political parties negotiate to form a government, nearly a month after the election left four main blocs each without sufficient seats to form a parliamentary majority on its own.

Former premier Iyad Allawi, whose bloc finished first, has accused Iran of seeking to prevent him becoming prime minister again by inviting all major parties except his secular bloc to Tehran.

Security officials had warned that protracted coalition building could give insurgents an opportunity to further destabilise the country.

"This is a political attack, aimed at derailing the process, sending a message that the terrorists are still in business," Zebari said. "Because of the vacuum of forming the next government, they wanted to send that message."

Also on Sunday, a car bomb targeting a police patrol near a market in the restive northern city of Mosul killed three people and wounded 30 others.

The violence follows a Saturday attack south of Baghdad blamed on Al-Qaeda in which security officials said 25 villagers linked to an anti-Qaeda militia were rounded up and shot execution-style by men in army uniforms.

Although the frequency of attacks has dropped significantly since peaking in 2006 and 2007, figures released on Thursday showed 367 Iraqis were killed in violence last month -- the highest number this year.

"This is very bad -- if the political parties do not get an agreement fast, we are going to return to sectarian war," said off-duty army officer Ziad, 47, whose car was just 30 metres (90 feet) from Sunday's Iranian embassy blast.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News