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There has been more heavy loss of life in Iraq during one of the most devastating series of attacks on the capital since the US-led invasion. Officials say at least one hundred and thirty people were killed and a similar number wounded, in a series of suicide car bombings and mortar attacks on Baghdad. One car bomb exploded at a market and another at a crowded bus station both in the Shi'ite Sadr City district.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, heavy clashes broke out during an attack on the health ministry. Reports say at least thirty gunmen surrounded the building and sprayed it with mortar and machine gun fire. Casualties have been reported on both sides. (It's the second raid by insurgents on a government office in the Iraqi capital in recent days: last week, dozens of civil servants were abducted from the higher education ministry.)