Three explosions just outside the heavily guarded Green Zone killed seven Iraqi civilians and wounded eight yesterday, a US official said.
Twelve Iraqis were also killed in other violence.
The explosions, heard across the city, came a day after Iraq's parliament met inside the Green Zone to elect top government officials in a breakthrough in a long political standoff.
PHOTO: AP
Iraqi police first said that three mortar rounds landed inside the zone, but the US official said the explosions occurred just outside.
They occurred near Iraq's Defense Ministry, which is just inside the zone, and were caused by mortars or rockets, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the attacks happened outside the Green Zone, where the US and British embassies are located.
Lieutenant Colonel Falah al-Mohammedawi, an Interior Ministry official, gave a lower casualty count, saying six Iraqis were killed and three wounded. The casualty toll could not immediately be verified independently.
Three of the wounded were Defense Ministry employees, an official at the ministry said on condition of anonymity because the ministry planned to issue a statement later.
Police Lieutenant Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said it was hard to identify the dead because the powerful blasts and shrapnel severed their limbs and destroyed their identification cards.
Iraqi police said the three explosions were among 11 mortar rounds fired in central Baghdad at about 8am. No one was hurt in the other eight blasts, which fell on the east side of the Tigris River near the Interior Ministry and the Shaab sports stadium, said police Lieutenant Bilal Ali. A building housing a municipal swimming pool was damaged.
Despite the violence, some Iraqis in Baghdad said they were encouraged by the legislators' success in finally beginning to form a new government.
"It took too long, but it is a good step in the right direction. It could be a springboard for the stability of this country," Hussein Farij said in Tahrir Square in central Baghdad.
"We pin a great hope on the formation of a new government. It must heal wounds of the wounded country," Majeed Hameed said.
On Saturday, the parliament elected a president, two vice presidents, a parliament speaker and two deputies. The breakthrough gave Jawad al-Maliki, the prime minister-designate, 30 days to choose a Cabinet including Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish politicians.
Maliki's appointment was applauded by Iraqi leaders and US President George W. Bush, but he now has the daunting task of forming a coalition able to avert any slide into civil war.
The Shiite politician's image as a tough talker seems to fit well in a country where many say only a strong man can lead them.
But many Iraqis living beyond the fortified government complex in Baghdad were already saying before his appointment on Saturday they doubted any of Iraq's present leaders could deliver quick relief from guerrilla and sectarian violence.
Yesterday, the bodies of eight Iraqi men who were apparently killed in captivity were discovered in two areas in Baghdad: six in Azamiyah and two in Sadr City, police said.
Such killings are common in Iraq, and security forces often can't tell if the dead were the victims of insurgents, sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunnis, or criminals.
Unidentified gunmen raided a real estate agency in Baghdad and killed its owner, who also works as a volunteer for the Iraqi Red Crescent Society relief agency, police said.
Outside the capital, a roadside bomb targeting a convoy carrying a provincial police commander, Major General Hamad Al-Namis, missed him but killed two of his policemen and wounded another near Beiji, 250km north of Baghdad, police said. Soon afterward, officials imposed a curfew in Beiji.
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