World

Mortar Rounds Hit Near Iraq Green Zone

April 24, 2006 / 7:30 AM EDT / CBS/AP

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

Twelve Iraqis also were killed in other violence.

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 first said 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. and British embassies are 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.

In other recent developments:

Three U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. command said. That brought the number of American troops killed in the Iraqi capital area over the weekend to eight. The latest deaths occurred about 11:30 a.m., the command, without giving further details. Five Americans soldiers died Saturday in bombings in the southern area of the capital. All eight were assigned to the Army's Multinational Brigade-Baghdad which is responsible for security in Baghdad and surrounding areas.

Former President Gerald Ford spoke out in support of embattled Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Mr. Ford, for whom Rumsfeld worked as White House Chief of Staff and at the Pentagon, said Mr. Bush was right to keep Rumsfeld in his current post.

Senator John Kerry says those who disagree with President Bush's Iraq policies face the same attacks he did 35 years ago when he spoke out against the Vietnam War. The Massachusetts Democrat told about 500 supporters that "it was right to dissent in 1971 from a war that was wrong."

A former CIA official tells CBS 60 Minutes the White House ignored doubts about possible Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in the runup to the 2003 war. Tyler Drumheller, who retired last year, also said the White House ignored a crucial source who said there were no active programs for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

A roadside bomb in Afghanistan killed four Canadian soldiers Saturday north of Kandahar city, the Canadian military said. The attack happened at about 7:30 a.m. as the Canadian forces were patrolling in an armored vehicle in the Shah-Wali-Kot district village of Gomboth, said Canadian military spokesman Lt. Mark MacIntyre.

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.

Meanwhile, after months of political deadlock, Iraq's parliament selected nominees for top leadership posts on Saturday, launching the process of putting together a new government aimed at pulling the country out of its sectarian strife.

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, was elected to a second term, and the post of parliament speaker went to Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni Arab. Al-Mashhadani's two deputies were to be Khalid al-Attiyah, a Shiite, and Aref Tayfour, a Kurd.

Talabani immediately named Shiite politician Jawad al-Maliki as prime minister after his Shiite coalition nominated him Friday, breaking a deadlock which had held up formation of the new government for months.

Sunni Arab and Kurdish politicians signaled they would accept al-Maliki, clearing the way for parliament to elect top leadership positions, including the president.

Al-Maliki replaces outgoing Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, whose attempt to stay for a second term had raised sharp opposition from Sunnis and Kurds and caused a deadlock that lasted months as the country's security crisis worsened in the wake of last December's election.

President Bush congratulated the new Iraqi government on Saturday, saying it "will make America more secure" and suggesting that it could be the beginning of an eventual drawdown of American forces from Iraq.

"The new Iraqi government will assume greater responsibility for their nation's security," Mr. Bush said. "It will have the popular mandate to address Iraq's toughest long-term challenges."

CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier reports that U.S. officials hope the diversity of faces in the new government will signal to the Iraqi public and members of the insurgency hat they should lay aside their differences, as their leaders seem to have done.

Al-Maliki is one of the top figures in the Dawa Party, the same party as incumbent al-Jafaari. But Maliki is seen as more neutral and fairer, whereas many accused al-Jafaari of allowing sectarian death squads to menace the capital all this past year, Dozier reports.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called him a patriot and "somebody with whom we can work," even if he disagrees with the United States on certain issues.

The nominee for prime minister has 30 days to form a government. Lawmakers must then approve each member of the government by a majority vote. Once finalized the Iraqi government will be in power for four years.

U.S. and Iraqi officials are hoping that a national unity government representing Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds will be able to quell both the Sunni-led insurgency and bloody Shiite-Sunni violence that has raged during the political uncertainty. If it succeeds, it could enable the U.S. to begin bringing home its 133,000 troops.

"It will have the popular mandate to address Iraq's toughest long-term challenges," Mr. Bush said in California. "These are major challenges and the new Iraqi government will not face them alone."

Mr. Bush's approval rating is at the lowest point of his presidency, and the daily tide of bad news from Iraq - beheadings and suicide bombings, attacks on U.S. soldiers - is a chief reason.