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Sunday's double suicide bombing in Baghdad took place in what was considered the city's safest area barring the "Green Zone". As the death toll soars to over 150, the people of Baghdad are left wondering just how the attackers could get through the city's countless checkpoints.

The attack is the worst the Iraqi capital has seen since April 2007, and comes just months after the targeted road reopened to public traffic. At least 25 staff members of the Baghdad Provincial Council, which runs the city, were killed in the bombing.

Two days after the attack al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the bloodshed, saying they wanted to punish what they call "the Ministry of Injustice and Oppression". The government however, blames members of Saddam Hussein's outlawed party, Baath. Today (October 29), dozens of security force members who were on shift over the weekend, including 11 officers and 15 commanders of connected checkpoints, were arrested over the attacks.

The attack is suspected as a first attempt from opposition militants to destabilise Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government in the run up to January's parliamentary election.