BAGHDAD – In a suicide terrorist attack, in front of Iran’s embassy in Baghdad on Sunday, 19 people were killed and many more injured.

Two other explosions went off in an area that houses several embassies, including the Egyptian Consulate, Syrian, German and Spanish embassies. Sunday's blasts went off within minutes of each other killing at least 35 people, injuring more than 200.
According to the Guardian newspaper the heaviest death toll was outside the Iranian mission, where police said at least 19 people were killed.
Iran’s Ambassador to Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, told Mehr News Agency that according to video coverage taken by cameras installed by the embassy, the attack was suicidal and occurred in front of the door leading to the street in which the Iranian embassy is located.
Qomi said that that there were no casualties or injuries among the staff of the embassy.
In the explosion some nearby buildings, including the Iranian embassy, and cars also sustained damages, Qomi added.
The ambassador said that it is still premature to say whether the Iranian embassy was the target, adding that more investigation is needed to determine this.
However, Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, a spokesman for the city’s operations command center, told The Associated Press that “these explosions targeted diplomatic missions.”
Security forces shot and killed a man wearing a suicide belt in a fourth bomb-rigged car near the former German embassy, which is now a bank in the capital's Karrada district, home to several other diplomatic missions, al-Moussawi said.
Another senior Iraqi security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said a fifth bomber was captured on his way to the Mansour area where two of the explosions occurred.
The official said Iraqi forces were tipped off about a possible attack against diplomatic targets and had begun beefing up security precautions Saturday — measures he credited with keeping the embassies themselves from serious damage.
The blasts Sunday morning took place in the central suburb of Mansour, within a few miles of the foreign ministry and around half a mile from two subsequent attacks in October that ripped apart the Baghdad council and justice ministry.
The area is home to most heavily guarded areas of Baghdad, with upscale residential streets, embassies and government institutions. Yet it has been the scene of more devastating attacks than any other area of Baghdad since widespread sectarian violence was quelled from late-2007.
“The explosion caused a great deal of material damage, breaking windows in various offices and in the ambassador’s residence,” explained Antonio Gonzalez-Zavala, who is in charge of business affairs for the Spanish embassy.
There were no victims in the Spanish embassy, as the plastic covering on the window stopped any flying glass, Gonzalez-Zavala told Xinhua.
Spanish embassy is also situated in Mansour district, next to the German embassy where two security guards were killed in the explosion.
Guards at the Egyptian Consulate opened fire on one of the attackers as he drove toward them, but were unable to stop him before the blast hit concrete barriers, al-Moussavi said.
Four Egyptians working at the consulate were wounded by shrapnel, according to Egypt’s Foreign Ministry.
Iranian Ambassador in Baghdad, Qomi said he linked the blasts to the opponents of the “new Iraq,” as the country is moving to form a new government following the March 7 parliamentary election, which failed to give any candidate a decisive win.
Such acts can neither disrupt the process of “government-building” in Iraq nor “affect” Iran’s relations with Iraq, the ambassador noted.
“The Islamic Republic will continue its policy to support the Iraqis in promoting security and reconstruction in the country.”
The ambassador added, “The terrorist act in front of Iran’s embassy was definitely engineered by the common enemies of Iran and Iraq, and the perpetrators must know that their moves will bear no result except reinforcing Iran’s determination to support stability in Iraq.