Bomb Blast in Baghdad:58 dead, >300 injured

Truck bombs and a barrage of mortars have killed at least 58 people and wounded about 300 in the centre of Baghdad, officials say.

One vehicle exploded outside the foreign ministry near the perimeter of the heavily guarded government Green Zone, reportedly leaving a huge crater.

Another went off close to the finance ministry building..

However,  most of those attacks targeted poor Shia neighbourhoods. These are the first co-ordinated strikes against the better-protected central areas of the city, she says.

Two huge bombs - believed to have been hidden in trucks - went off on Wednesday morning, sending plumes of black smoke into the sky.

The full picture remains unclear at present, but according to one report police say 75 people have been killed and 310 injured.

It left a crater 3m (10 feet) deep and 10m in diameter, reported AFP news agency.

At least three other explosions - possibly mortars - went off in other parts of Baghdad.

The apparently co-ordinated attacks come weeks after US troops handed over to Iraqi forces responsibility for security in towns and cities, including Baghdad and the Green Zone.

The violence comes exactly six years after one of the first major attacks in Iraq after the toppling of Saddam Hussein.