Mortar Rounds Hit Near Green Zone

Three explosions occurred outside the heavily guarded Green Zone on Sunday, killing seven Iraqi civilians and wounding eight, a U.S. official said.

The official said the blasts, caused by mortars or rockets, occurred near Iraq's Defense 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 official spoke on condition of anonymity since the blasts occurred outside the Green Zone, where Iraq's parliament meets and the U.S. and British embassies are located.

Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi of Iraq's Interior Ministry gave a lower casualty count, saying six Iraqis were killed and three wounded.

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 standoff 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 at about 8 a.m. Sunday.

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 and only damaged a building housing a municipal swimming pool, said police Lt. Bilal Ali.

Police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said it was hard to identify Sunday'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 Defense Ministry, an official there said on condition of anonymity, saying the ministry would issue an official statement later.

In other violence Sunday, the bodies of eight Iraqi men who apparently were killed in captivity were discovered in two areas Baghdad: six in Azamiyah and two in Sadr City, police said. Such killings are common in Iraq, and security forces often can't tell if the dead were the victims of insurgents, sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunnis, or criminals.

Unidentified gunmen raided a real estate agency in Baghdad and killed its owner, who also works as a volunteer for the Iraqi Red Crescent Society relief agency, police said.

Outside the capital, a roadside bomb targeting a convoy carrying police Maj. Gen. Hamad Al-Namis missed him but killed two of his policemen and wounded another near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

Further north, near Kirkuk city, a drive-by shooting killed Muhammed Fathi, director of the Ardhul Battra, a Turkish company working on the area's railways, said police Brig. Sarhat Qadir.