Baghdad, Jan 25 (IANS) The toll in three suicide car bombings in central Baghdad Monday has risen to 24, an interior ministry source said.
Forty-one people were injured.

“The latest reports said the toll rose to 24 killed and 41 wounded in three Baghdad bombings,” the source told Xinhua requesting anonymity.

The suicide bombers detonated their explosives-laden cars outside the three major hotels in central Baghdad, the source said.

Earlier, the source put the toll at 11 killed and over 20 injured.

The first blast occurred around 3.40 p.m. near the Sheraton and Meridian hotels on the Abu Nawas street.

The second blast took place near the Babylon Hotel, some five kilometers from the site of the first, and the third blast occurred outside the al-Hamraa hotel in Karrada district.

Baghdad has witnessed a series of bomb attacks in the recent past, killing and wounding thousands of Iraqis.