42 people killed and more than 200 wounded in Iraq

Within barely an hour, explosions also rocked the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) office, and three other police stations in the capital. Another car bomb attack was foiled.

At the ICRC offices, an Iraqi ambulance rammed into a barricade in front of the building, bursting into flames and sending a thick black cloud of smoke over the city.

"An Iraqi hospital ambulance sped toward us. I waved my arms to stop it. It barreled into the barrier blocking the headquarters and burst into flames," said ICRC guard Saba Ali Ihsan.

Burnt-out vehicles smoldered on the street. The ambulance was a twisted heap of metal and glass shards scattered on the ground, as people screamed for those missing inside the ICRC building.

The wounded, streaming blood from head wounds, wandered aimlessly at the scene of the blast that killed at least 12 people.

At the Al-Elam police station, at least another 13 people, including three policemen, were killed and 10 US soldiers wounded when a white car exploded, said policemen and a US soldier.

One US soldier was killed and six wounded in the car bomb attack of a police station in Baghdad’s Al-Bayaa district.

The choreographed bombings, which shrouded the Baghdad skyline in smoke, also brought the bluntest charges yet by US officials that foreigners are fighting against the coalition in Iraq.

The attacks came a day after a barrage of rockets pounded a hotel in the coalition’s heavily-guarded Baghdad complex, housing dozens of US military and civilian staff, as well as visiting US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

At least one US soldier was killed and 17 other people wounded in the attack.

In another blow for the US-led coalition, three US soldiers were killed and four wounded late Sunday in attacks around the capital.

The United Nations said the bombing at the ICRC offices in Baghdad was aimed at driving foreigners — even aid workers — out of Iraq.

The ICRC is to begin pulling foreign staff out of Baghdad in the wake of the bombing but will continue to refuse military protection, said its head of delegation in Baghdad.