Al-Maliki on Friday ordered police and soldiers to bolster security in the area and chase down the perpetrators.

"This crime reveals the inherent hatred of the terrorists against the Iraqi people, and their despair to carry out their evil plans after they received repeated defeats at the hands of the sons of our armed forces," al-Maliki said, according to a press release from his office.

"The remnants of terrorism committed a new heinous crime against innocent civilians in Karrada district in Baghdad which claimed the lives of many civilians and wounded many others."

An Interior Ministry official told CNN on Friday that the death toll in the back-to-back bombings now stands at 69, with 120 wounded.

The bombings occurred in Karrada, a bustling commercial area that is busy when the Muslim weekend begins on Thursday nights.

A roadside bomb exploded first, around 7 p.m. As others gathered to help the wounded, a suicide bomber amid the crowd detonated an explosive vest, killing and wounding many more.

A security officer for Iraqi Shiite Vice-President Adel Abdul-Mahdi was among the dead, the ministry said on Friday, adding that the officer was not targeted in the attack but happened to be in the crowd when the bombs exploded.

The attacks raise the prospect of renewed carnage in Baghdad, which has seen a major reduction in violence in recent months.

The deadly blasts were followed by another suicide attack on Friday morning that claimed the lives of five security officers.

The car bomb attack on a police station in Mosul -- about 260 miles (420 km) north of Baghdad -- also wounded 17 other people, according to a police official.

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