BAGHDAD: Car bombs killed at least 112 people in Baghdad yesterday, police said, leaving pools of blood, charred buses and scattered body parts in a brutal reminder of the threat from Iraq's stubborn insurgency.

The blasts, most of them detonated by suicide bombers, ripped through crowded areas close to government buildings, which should have been under tight security after previous devastating attacks in the capital in recent months.

The bombings undermine Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's claims to have brought security to the country before a national election scheduled for March 6, and could rattle foreign oil chiefs due in Iraq this weekend for a major contract auction.