The attacks, apparently coordinated, started when the three car bombs were detonated outside the Justice, Foreign Affairs and Communications Ministries, striking the heart of the Iraqi government by hitting an area deep inside a walled compound heavy with security guards in central Baghdad. Shortly after the car bombs went off, a number of gunmen, including one who was also rigged as a suicide bomber, raided the Justice Ministry. Security forces killed all of them but the suicide attacker, who managed to blow himself up inside the complex, a security source said.

The police in a preliminary report did not provide a breakdown of how many casualties came from the car bombs or how many were caused by the suicide attack.