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.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
China has approved the creation of a national nature reserve at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines, the government said yesterday, as Beijing moves to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region. A notice posted online by the Chinese State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration. “The building of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is an important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of Huangyan Island,” the notice said. Scarborough
RSS