The blast at the UN building came when an Iraqi security guard opened the bonnet of a car for a routine inspection at a checkpoint at the rear of the building. UN officials said the bomber wore a belt of explosives and also had what was thought to be a 25kg bomb in the car.
Security at the UN compound had been tightened after a suicide bomber last month killed 23 people, including the UN special representative, Sergio de Mello. At the time 300 UN staff worked in Baghdad. That number has now been reduced.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, warned that if the situation continued to deteriorate, the organization's work in Iraq would be handicapped considerably.
The guards who bore the brunt of Monday's attack were members of the new facility protection service, a 4,000-strong Iraqi force established by the US military. The military provides the force with a brief three-day training program, although the men at the UN compound on Monday said they were still waiting to be trained. They complained that they were allowed no weapons, wore no body armor and had no mirrors or metal detectors to inspect cars and visitors at checkpoints.
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