Deaths as car bombs hit Baghdad

Plumes of smoke rose above the sites of the explosions on Tuesday morning [AFP] At least four people have been killed and several others injured in a series of car bombs in central Baghdad. Three explosions went off in separate locations across the city on Tuesday, an Iraqi interior ministry official said. A police source told Al Jazeera that the explosions were near the Iranian embassy, the foreign ministry and the entrance to the Green Zone. Ahmed Rushdi, a journalist in Baghdad, told Al Jazeera: "The third [blast] was near a restaurant that is attended by officers from the police and the Iraqi army for breakfast in the early morning. "It's just outside the Green Zone, which is a big challenge for the security [officials] who are inside the Green Zone and inside the parliament." The heavily protected Green Zone houses key offices of the Iraqi government as well as the US and British embassies. Security concerns The blasts come a week after suicide bombers targeted government buildings in a series of attacks on December 8 that killed 127 people. Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, faced questions in parliament last week over those attacks. He blamed the recent bombings on political discord, saying that disputes between political groups were putting the nation's security at risk. He also criticised legislators for failing to provide enough money for security. Parliamentarians instead pointed to a lack of co-ordination between ministries. Tuesday's bombings were the fourth wave of co-ordinated attacks in four months to target official buildings in the Iraqi capital despite the security measures in place. On October 25, the justice ministry and a provincial office were attacked, with blasts killing 153 people and injuring more than 500. On August 19, more than 100 people were killed and hundreds injured at the foreign and finance ministries.