BAGHDAD - An al-Qaida-linked group in Iraq has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s devastating car bombings in Baghdad that killed at least 155 people and wounded more than 500 others.

The militant group named the Islamic State in Iraq announced it was behind the twin suicide bombings in a statement posted on a militant Web site. 

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had blamed the attacks on al-Qaida and members of the former Baathist party. He said the bombers intended to create instability and stop the country from holding elections in January.

The near-simultaneous attacks occurred close to the capital’s heavily-guarded Green Zone and seemed to target a provincial government building and the Ministry of Justice.

Iraq’s Interior Ministry said authorities have arrested at least 70 people, but the ministry has not elaborated on the arrests.

The Islamic State in Iraq also had claimed responsibility for the attacks near government ministries in Baghdad that killed about 100 people in August.

Iraqi security forces have blocked streets in the country’s capital as they continue to investigate the blasts.

Baghdad’s governor Salah Abdul Razak said negligence or collusion by Iraqi security forces may have enabled the bombers to carry out the attacks.

The blasts heavily damaged the government buildings, demolished nearby cars and scattered body parts across the streets.  

At the Pentagon, spokesman Bryan Whitman says American explosives experts and crime-scene investigators are helping their Iraq counterparts.  

President Barack Obama called Prime Minister Maliki and Iraq’s president, Jalal Talabani, to offer his condolences and condemn the bombings as senseless acts of violence. Similar messages went out to Iraq from the United Nations and NATO headquarters. 

Source:  VOA News