At least six bomb and mortar attacks hit mostly high-profile targets central Baghdad in quick succession on Wednesday, killing at least 25 people and wounding 75, police said, Reuters reported.
One blast was close enough to Iraq's parliament building in the heavily guarded Green Zone government and diplomatic complex to shatter windows, television footage showed. The blast was near Iraq's Foreign Ministry, just outside the Green Zone.
The site was a twisted heap of smouldering cars as firefighters fought to put out the blaze. Some of the ministry's windows were also smashed.
The ministry could not be reached for comment.
A truck bomb in Baghdad's Waziriya district, close to the Finance Ministry, killed three people and wounded seven, police said, and caused widespread destruction. Part of a raised highway near the building had collapsed, a Reuters witness said.
Another explosion was close enough to Reuters' offices in central Baghdad's Karrada district to burst open windows and doors. Columns of smoke could be seen rising into the Baghdad skyline from several sites.
Baghdad's central governorate building also came under mortar attack, police said.
In south Baghdad's Bayaa district, a blast killed two people and wounded five. It was not yet immediately clear where the other deaths among the 25 people killed occurred.
Mortars landed in the Salhiya district of central Baghdad, home to army bases and the offices of a national television station.
U.N. security guards had earlier had said at least one mortar round may landed near the United Nations compound, also in the Green Zone, but a U.N. official later denied this.
The Baghdad government had this month said most of the city's blast walls would come down within 40 days.
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