Scores dead after multiple 'al-Qaeda' Iraq bombings The second explosion caused the biggest destruction. I saw body parts, fingers, hands thrown on the road," Murtadha Ali Kadhim, a 23-year-old shop worker in Karbala, told the Reuters news agency. In Baghdad, one bomb hit an office of the foreign ministry and a second struck a security patrol, killing three police. A gun attack on a church killed three more. In all, 14 towns and cities were attacked, with the death toll estimated at 49 by late afternoon. The number of wounded was put at almost 200. In most of the cases, the targets seem to have been civilians and police, but a motorcade carrying the governor of Anbar province, a Sunni heartland west of Baghdad stretching to the Syrian border, and long a haven for al-Qaeda, was also hit. A statement by the Islamic State of Iraq, al-Qaeda's local franchise, after the last major bombings on February 23 said they had been revenge for the arrest, torture and execution of Sunnis in the country. "Know that the coming stage is a stage of real confrontation and war against the despicable (Shia), whether you like it or not," it said. There is no way out of it and there is no swerving from it. Diplomats say a pattern has emerged of serious attacks every five or six weeks, indicating that the group does not have the numbers or material for sustained campaigns, but they had also been expecting a surge before and during the Arab League summit due to be held next week. An unverified statement purporting to be from Islamic State of Iraq last night claimed responsibility for the attack on the foreign ministry building, saying it had been handling security for the summit. During the summit, parts of Baghdad will be sealed off, regular flights to Baghdad International Airport will stop, and on the day of the heads of government meeting on March 29, a curfew will be imposed.