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.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS