More deadly attacks in Baghdad
At least one person was killed in the Green Zone blast[AFP]
A suicide bomber has killed at least 20 people and wounded 30 outside a
college in Baghdad, Iraqi police said.
Reports said the bomber blew himself up outside the Economy and
Administration College in the eastern part of the city after guards
prevented him from entering the college grounds.
Earlier, at least one person was killed and eight injured in a car bomb
attack near the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad.
The blast was only 50 metres from the Iranian embassy, although the
authorities said they did not believe that the building was the intended
target.
The Green Zone also houses the US and British embassies and key offices
of the Iraqi government.
Soon after the attack, two rockets hit a Shia enclave in southern
Baghdad, injuring a number of people.
There were conflicting reports about the number of casualties with some
police sources saying at least 10 people were killed and eight injured.
The Reuters news agency, however, said other police sources reported
that only three people had been wounded.
The two Katyusha rockets slammed into the Abu Dishir district, which is
surrounded by a predominantly Sunni neighbourhood.
Mosque targeted
It was not clear whether the Green Zone blast was intended as a signal
to the Iranians.
The explosion ripped through the street at 08:45 am (0545 GMT) during
the busiest period of the morning rush hour, when nearby roads were
packed with motorists and pedestrians heading for work, many in nearby
Iraqi ministries.
Khalil Saadati, an Iranian diplomat, said: "It was close to the embassy,
but we weren't the target."
On Saturday, a fuel tanker rigged with explosives killed 40 people when
it blew up near a Sunni mosque in western Iraq .
The blast came a day after the mosque's imam had criticised al-Qaeda
fighters, police and residents said.
The bomb exploded in a market in the town of Habaniya in the province of
Anbar, where US forces are battling armed Sunni Arab groups.
Local police said they believed the mosque was the target, adding that
the market had been destroyed and 64 people wounded.
Women and children were among the dead, they said.
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