Car blast injures 12 near Green Zone entrance
A car bomb exploded near a checkpoint leading to Baghdad’s Green Zone today, injuring at least 12 people.
It is the second attack in two days on the entrance to the heavily-guarded district that houses Iraq’s interim government and foreign embassies.
The injured included five Iraqi National Guardsmen and five civilians, said Razzaq Hussein, of the capital’s Yarmouk hospital.
Yesterday, a suicide car bomber killed 13 people and injured at least 15 near the Harthiyah entrance on the western edge of the zone.
A mushroom-shaped cloud of black smoke rose from where the blast occurred, and guardsmen and policemen immediately blocked off the site.
A policeman on the scene said a car bomb had gone off near the spot of yesterday’s blast.
The US embassy and several other missions are in the zone, which consists of former dictator Saddam Hussein’s palace and other administrative buildings. The US military confirmed that a car bomb had exploded near the checkpoint and said there were no American casualties.
The Green Zone occupies an area of four square miles on the west bank of the Tigris river. It is a virtual fortress encircled by miles of 12-foot barricades, its gates guarded by US Bradley fighting vehicles.
The complex is off-limits to the public.
