AFP - At least 135 people were killed in the twin suicide vehicle bombings in central Baghdad at the weekend, attacks claimed by Al-Qaeda, the Iraqi health ministry said on Tuesday.

A truck bomb and a minibus bomb targeted the justice ministry and the offices of the Baghdad provincial government on Sunday, in the deadliest coordinated attack to hit Iraq in more than two years.

"The latest toll for those killed in the two attacks, according to our information, is 135," health ministry spokesman Dr Sabah Abdullah told AFP.

Abdullah admitted that the actual casualty figures could be even higher, noting that several of the dead "were taken to their homes directly, while some victims received medical treatment without going to a hospital."

Senior Iraqi officials had previously put the death toll at 99, while an interior ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, has said 155 people were killed.

The attacks were claimed by Al-Qaeda's front-group in Iraq, in an online statement, a US-based monitoring group said on Tuesday.

The self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq said the bomb attacks were part of its campaign dubbed the "Invasion of the Captive," SITE Intelligence said.

It has previously also claimed responsibility for twin truck bombings outside two ministries in Baghdad in August that killed at least 95 people.

Defence ministry spokesman Major General Mohammed al-Askari has told AFP that evidence linked Sunday's bombers to Al-Qaeda and supporters of the Baath Party of executed dictator Saddam Hussein.

The attacks, which also left around 500 people wounded, have been widely condemned internationally and sparked a pledge by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to bring the perpetrators to justice. Related article: Iraq's bloodshed

In August 2007, more than 400 people were slaughtered in four coordinated suicide truck bombs targeting the Yazidi religious sect in two Kurdish villages in north Iraq -- the deadliest single day toll since the 2003 US-led invasion.

And on July 7 of the same year, a suicide truck bombing killed 150 people in Emerli village, also in the north.