Via Yahoo News:
An al-Qaeda-linked group has claimed responsibility for a coordinated suicide bomb and gun attack on the country’s justice ministry last week that killed at least 18 people.
Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), an umbrella group for al Qaeda-linked fighters, said in a statement published online on Sunday that it had ordered the suicide bombers to attack the building floor by floor and “liquidate” its enemies inside.
“In a blessed raid among a series of operations for revenge… Baghdad’s knights undermined another vicious bastion which was always a tool against Sunnis, torturing, terrifying, imprisoning and executing them,” the group said in the statement.
The assault near the heavily fortified Green Zone, where several Western embassies and government offices are located, fanned fears about Iraq’s still fragile security a decade after the US-led invasion ousted late President Saddam Hussein.
Three car bombs exploded and a suicide bomber blew himself up in broad daylight in the heart of the capital on Thursday.
Another suicide bomber then walked into the justice ministry and set off his device while armed men attacked the building. Iraqi security forces eventually regained control.
Overall, at least 18 people were killed and more than 30 wounded, security and medical officials said. But ISI claimed to have killed 60 people, according to a statement distributed by the SITE monitoring service on Sunday.