A female suicide bomber blew herself up near an entrance to the US-protected Green Zone and a bomb tore through a minibus carrying Iraqi government employees in separate attacks yesterday, killing at least 20 people, Iraqi officials said. A third attack on an Iraqi police patrol in Baghdad killed two civilians, police said.In the first attack, a bomb attached to a bus used by the Trade Ministry to ferry employees to work exploded shortly before 8 a.m. in eastern Baghdad, police and hospital officials said. Thirteen ministry employees were killed and three wounded, according to an official with the state-owned Iraqi shopping centres company who also spoke on condition of anonymity. The company is part of the Trade Ministry.
The rush-hour attack happened in a Shia area and the injured were taken to Kindi hospital in Baghdad. The US military said 14 people were killed and four were injured in the 7:20 a.m. blast on the minibus. It said American soldiers assisted Iraqi police in securing the area and treating casualties.
About 45 minutes later, a female suicide bomber blew herself up as she stood in line to be searched at a checkpoint near the Green Zone in central Baghdad, killing seven people and wounding 13, according to an Interior Ministry official who declined to give his name. The US military said the bombing near the Green Zone occurred between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. and killed two Iraqi army members and three civilians. One civilian was injured, it said.
The Green Zone houses the US Embassy and the Iraqi government headquarters.
In a third attack, a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol around 10:30 am near Technology University in eastern Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding four other people, an Iraqi police officer and an official at Ibin al-Nafis hospital said on condition of anonymity. Two police officers were among the injured.