A woman hiding a bomb under her long robe blew herself up on Monday among Iraqis waiting to enter the US-protected Green Zone, where lawmakers plan to vote this week on a pact that would let US forces stay in Iraq for up to three more years.
The morning attack in central Baghdad killed seven people, by an Iraqi count, and came about 45 minutes after a bomb destroyed a minibus carrying Trade Ministry employees in the eastern part of the capital.
At least 13 people died in that blast, most of them women; some of the bodies were burned so badly that authorities could not immediately identify them.
Ahmed al-Sayyid, 23, said he was waiting in line with friends at an entrance to the Green Zone, hoping for a job interview with the Iraqi police. A woman in a black abaya, an enveloping cloak, approached the line without drawing the attention of guards, he said.
“Suddenly, she blew herself up about 50m from where I was standing. I was horrified and I ran away. But seconds later, I returned to the explosion site, which was filled with smoke, and I could see some wounded people and pieces of flesh,” al-Sayyid said.
Guards fired in the air to disperse the crowd after the explosion, he said.
The violence appeared to bolster the Iraqi government’s claim that a hasty departure of US forces could undermine the relative stability that many parts of Iraq have enjoyed recently after years of bloodletting. That argument is key to troubled efforts by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to win parliament’s broad approval for the US-Iraqi security pact.
The ruling coalition has a majority in parliament and could secure at least a thin majority if the 275-seat legislature votes as scheduled today on the security deal. Al-Maliki’s campaign, however, has run into resistance from lawmakers who either want the Americans to leave immediately, or seek to extract political concessions in return for supporting the government.
Today’s session in parliament will be the last before the legislature goes into recess until the second half of next month, he said.
US troops currently operate under the legal cover of a UN mandate that expires on Dec. 31. If the Iraqi parliament rejects the agreement and the UN mandate is not renewed, US and other foreign forces in Iraq would have to be confined inside their bases from the beginning of next year.
There was no evidence that the attacks on Monday were linked to the contentious debate over the security pact, which sets a timeline for the withdrawal of US troops — from cities by next June 30 and the entire country by Jan. 1, 2012 — and places them under strict Iraqi supervision.
But the bombings amounted to a show of defiance and a reminder of the possibility that attacks could increase as US troop levels fall and the Iraqis assume more responsibility.
In a news conference last week, al-Maliki said he might relax restrictions on entry into the Green Zone “so the whole of Baghdad can, God willing, be green too.”
The suicide bombing at a checkpoint just outside the zone on Monday suggested the prime minister’s declaration will remain wishful thinking for a while. Seven people died and 13 were wounded in the attack, an Interior Ministry official said anonymously.
The US military said the bombing killed two Iraqi army members and three civilians. One civilian was injured, it said.
Iraq’s intelligence service said the bomber had targeted the checkpoint used by its workers to enter the Green Zone to reach the agency’s headquarters inside.
The service said female employees, including a pregnant woman, were killed and some of its guards were injured.
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