Series Of Bombings Strikes Iraq' Green Zone

Monday, July 23rd 2007, 11:41 am

By: News On 6

BAGHDAD (AP) _ Three parked cars exploded within 30 minutes Monday in a predominantly Shiite area in Baghdad, killing at least 12 people, police said, in the deadliest in a series of bombings and shooting attacks nationwide.

Iran's ambassador to Baghdad, meanwhile, confirmed that the United States and Iran will discuss the security situation in Iraq on Tuesday in Baghdad, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

``The composition of the negotiating teams will include ambassadors of Iran and America in Baghdad, as head of the two teams, with observance of Iraqi officials,'' IRNA quoted Hasan Kazemi Qomi as saying Monday.

The U.S. military also reported the deaths of three American soldiers this weekend in separate roadside bombings. Two were killed Saturday in attacks in Baghdad and the northern city of Samarra, while the third died of wounds sustained in a blast south of Baghdad on Sunday. At least 3,635 members of the U.S. military who have died since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Two of the blasts in the Baghdad neighborhood of Karradah struck nearly simultaneously.

One targeted a passing police patrol, killing three officers and three pedestrians and wounding nine other people, a police officer said, adding that at least seven cars also were damaged in the blast, which struck near to the Interior Ministry's nationality and social affairs directorate and the 14th of July bridge, he added.

Another parked car bomb about 500 yards away struck at about the same time, ripping through a bustling market selling vegetables and household goods, killing three civilians and wounding five others, the policeman added.

AP Television News video showed U.S. soldiers milling about the charred wreckage, with shattered glass and blackened debris from nearby shops and street stalls strewn on the bloodstained pavement.

Another car packed with explosives struck a police patrol in Elwiyah square at about 11:30 a.m. in another part of Karradah, killing two policemen and a civilian and wounding five people, police said.

Karradah, a popular shopping area, has been hit by several high-profile bombings, and Monday's attack occurred despite a five-month-old U.S.-Iraqi security operation aimed at stopping such violence in the capital.

Hassan Sami, a 28-year-old clothing store owner in Karradah, said he was showered by shattered glass that left his left arm wounded.

``Nothing was left except the smell of charred flesh mixed with gunpowder and wreckage stained with blood,'' Sami said. ``We've been attacked many times before and the government can't do anything for this area. It only sends its patrols who roam the streets with their annoying sirens without doing anything useful.''

Another car packed with explosives blew up on the main road about 200 yards from an entry point to the U.S.-controlled Green Zone, killing at least four Iraqis and wounding seven, a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. The heavily fortified Green Zone is home to the U.S. and British embassies as well as Iraqi government offices and thousands of American troops and contractors.

Elsewhere in the capital, a bomb exploded on a minibus near a busy commercial area, killing one person and wounding nine others, police said.

A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol about 75 miles east of Baghdad, near the Iranian border, killing five troops, according to police and morgue officials. The explosion occurred on the southeastern edge of the volatile Diyala province.

Also near the Iranian border, gunmen ambushed a convoy of trucks loaded with goods being sent from major wholesale markets in Baghdad to Khanaqin, 90 miles northeast of Baghdad. Five people were killed and three others kidnapped, including drivers and guards, police said.

In western Anbar province, security officials said at least two policemen were killed and 10 wounded when a woman hiding an explosives belt under her Islamic gown blew herself up as she was about to be searched at a checkpoint on the western outskirts of Ramadi. Although suicide bombings regularly claim scores of victims in Iraq's sectarian violence, female bombers remain relatively rare.

In all, at least 42 people killed nationwide Monday, according to security officials who asked not to be identified because they feared retribution.

With militants continuing to find new ways to thwart the violence, officials are pressing diplomatic and legislative efforts to promote national reconciliation and end support for the violence.

The U.S. and Iranian ambassadors to Baghdad will sit down Tuesday for their second meeting since May to discuss the deteriorating security situation in Iraq. The talks will be held despite accusations by the United States that Tehran is making a concerted effort to arm militants and harm U.S. troops. Iran denies the allegations.

Tensions between the two countries also have risen over Tehran's detention of four Iranian-American scholars and activists charged with endangering national security. The U.S. has demanded their release, saying the charges against them are false.

At the same time, Iran has called for the release of five Iranians detained in Iraq, whom the United States has said are the operations chief and other members of Iran s elite Quds Force, which is accused of arming and training Iraqi militants. Iran says the five are diplomats in Iraq with permission of the government.

The United States broke off diplomatic ties with Iran following the 1979 storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the holding of American hostages for 444 days.