Explosions Near Green Zone Kill 7 Iraqis

By THOMAS WAGNER

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Three explosions just outside the heavily guarded Green Zone killed seven Iraqi civilians and wounded eight Sunday, a U.S. official said. 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.

Iraqi police said earlier that three mortar rounds landed inside the zone, but the U.S. 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 U.S. Embassy is located.

Lt. Col. 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 Lt. 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 8 a.m. No one was hurt in the other eight blasts, which fell on the east side of the Tigris River near Iraq’s Interior Ministry and the Shaab sports stadium, said police Lt. Bilal Ali. A building housing a municipal swimming pool was damaged.

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.