Seven killed in mortar blasts
Three explosions occurred outside the heavily guarded Green Zone in Baghdad today, killing seven Iraqi civilians and wounding eight others, a US official said.
The official said the blasts, caused by mortars or rockets, occurred near Iraq’s Defence Ministry, which is located just inside the Green Zone on the west side of the Tigris River. One of the explosions occurred in a parking lot.
The explosions, which were heard across the city, came one day after Iraq’s parliament elected a president, two vice presidents, a parliament speaker and two deputies.
The breakthrough in a long political stand-off now gives Jawad al-Maliki, the prime minister designate, 30 days to choose a Cabinet from divided Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties.
Iraqi police said the three explosions near the Green Zone were part of 11 mortar rounds that were fired in central Baghdad.
They said the other eight fell on the east side of the Tigris River near Iraq’s Interior Ministry and the Shaab sports stadium. Those blasts caused no casualties, said police Lt. Bilal Ali.
Police Lt Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said it was hard to identify today’s fatalities because the powerful blasts and shrapnel severed their limbs and destroyed their identification cards.
But three of the wounded employees worked for the Defence Ministry, an official said.
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