Nothing But Politics

[Rick Faurot]

Bombs Kill at Least 8 in Baghdad's Green Zone
Thu Oct 14, 2004 09:05 AM ET
By Alistair Lyon

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two explosions, one of them a suicide attack, killed eight people including two Americans on Thursday in one of the bloodiest attacks on Baghdad's fortified Green Zone.

It was the first suicide attack on what is supposed to be the securest corner of Iraq. The zone, in Saddam Hussein's former presidential compound, houses government offices and the U.S. and British embassies.

"There were body parts scattered everywhere. There could be more than eight dead, and several are wounded," said a source at a U.S. military hospital inside the compound, which is protected by towering concrete blast walls and U.S. troops in sandbagged positions.

Black smoke billowed from the sprawling compound on the west bank of the Tigris river after the explosions that targeted a popular cafe and a souvenir bazaar. A diplomat said a suicide bomber had caused at least one of the blasts.

Six people were killed and three wounded in the attack on the bazaar, while two were killed and several wounded at the Green Zone cafe, the U.S. military said, adding that there was no evidence of either a car bomb or a mortar attack.

A spokeswoman said two U.S. nationals were among the dead. "We don't know if they were military or civilian," she said. The identity of the others was not immediately known, but thousands of Iraqis work inside the 4 square mile compound.

West of Baghdad, U.S. warplanes struck at targets in the rebel-held city of Falluja, killing two people, one of them a 13-year-old boy, and wounding three, hospital doctors said.