No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings, but Sunni Islamist militants have been regaining ground in Iraq, particularly in the western province of Anbar, where they overran two cities on Jan. 1.
More than 1,000 people were killed in violence across the country in January alone, and last year was the bloodiest since 2008, when sectarian warfare began to abate from its height.
On Wednesday, security sources said two parked car bombs went off opposite the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, killing 11.
The Interior Ministry gave a different version, blaming the "cowardly" attack on a suicide bomber on a motorcycle.
"At around nine o'clock this morning, a terrorist suicide bomber riding a motorcycle tried to enter the security area of the Ministry," it said in a statement. "A group of guards stopped him at a checkpoint and denied him access so he blew himself and the bike up."
In a separate incident, a suicide bomber driving a car detonated himself along with the vehicle outside a restaurant close to a checkpoint one street away from the Green Zone, killing eight people, the security sources said. LINK
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