As Iraq reeled from last week’s twin bombings in Baghdad that killed more than 150 people and injured 500, public anger turned against Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister.

His government, which goes to the polls in January, has benefited from security gains in the past two years. The ruling party made strides in provincial elections last February, but each new terrorist attack erodes its support.

Recent bombings claimed by Al-Qaeda have targeted government buildings in the heart of the capital. Officials said the toll from last Sunday’s attacks against the justice ministry and the provincial government came to 153, but it was impossible to say how many were men, women or children because so many bodies were unrecognisable.

Families faced desperate searches to find remains of their loved ones. Mohammed Haj Abdallah spent five days looking for his daughter, Sana, and his grandson. Ironically, Sana had gone to the provincial government building to claim the pension of her husband who had been killed in an earlier bombing.

On Thursday Mohammed found the hand of his daughter, which he recognised from her wedding ring. The old man was inconsolable.

Ali, who had survived the blast with two friends, was still fuming at the government for failing to prevent such attacks.

“They want us to vote for Maliki in the coming elections,” he said. “How can we and why should we? He cannot even protect his ministries. How in Allah’s name can he protect us?”

Ali had been sitting at a coffee shop with his two friends, Hamza and Youssef, when the explosion knocked all three from their chairs.

“It was a scene from hell, dead bodies, flesh, body parts. Fires, water, broken pipes, burning cars, rubble, blood everywhere and a terrible stench of death,” he said. “The three of us could not believe we were alive and we began picking up dead bodies and helping people.”

More than 60 members of the security forces have been arrested since the attacks after suggestions that security was lax. Maliki and his interior and defence ministers are expected to face questions in parliament.

Although the roots of Maliki’s Dawa party are Islamist, he has created a broad-based alliance including some Sunni tribal leaders, Shi’ite Kurds, Christians and independents.

The prime minister is facing opposition from the Iraqi National Alliance, a new Shi’ite coalition, which includes the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr, the anti-American cleric, Ibrahim Jaafari, the former prime minister, and Ahmed Chalabi, the former exiled opposition leader.

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