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Blasts hit baghdad green zone Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Blasts Hit Baghdad's Green Zone
Thu Oct 14, 2004 07:10 AM ET
By Alistair Lyon
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two explosions on Thursday rocked Baghdad's fortified Green Zone compound, which houses government offices and the U.S. embassy.
Black smoke billowed from the zone after the blasts and a U.S. military hospital in the compound took in wounded.
"Casualties are being brought in as we speak," said an administrator at the hospital.
The U.S. military had no immediate word on the explosions.
In the northern city of Mosul, a roadside bomb killed a civilian and wounded six Iraqi National Guards and a car blew up near a U.S. military convoy, police and hospital sources said.
Gunmen killed a woman journalist, Dina Hassan, and a judge in separate attacks in Baghdad, interior ministry spokesman Adnan Abdel Rahman said. Two senior Iraqi army officers were shot dead in Baquba, north of the capital, a colleague said.
Insurgents frequently attack Iraqis seen as collaborating with U.S. forces or the U.S.-backed interim government.
The latest violence came a day after interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi threatened to attack the rebel-held city of Falluja unless it turns in foreign militants. A negotiator for the city said its people were being asked to chase shadows.
Iyad Allawi told Iraq's interim assembly on Wednesday that Falluja must surrender Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, America's top enemy in Iraq, or face military action.
"We want to know what proof there is that Zarqawi is in Falluja," Hatem Maddab, a member of a Falluja negotiating committee, told Arabic Al Jazeera television, adding that the government had now halted peace talks.
Government officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the status of negotiations.
Falluja, a bastion of Sunni resistance for the past 17 months, has been in the hands of battle-hardened insurgents since a failed assault by U.S. marines in April.
U.S. warplanes have repeatedly struck at targets the military says are hideouts used by Zarqawi and his followers in the Sunni Muslim city 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad.
"Zarqawi is like the weapons of mass destruction that America invaded Iraq for," Maddab said.
The United States has offered a $25 million bounty for Zarqawi, saying he has links to al Qaeda and accusing him of orchestrating some of Iraq's deadliest suicide bombings.
DISMAY IN FALLUJA
The Iraqi government and U.S. military say Arab militants led by Zarqawi plot attacks from bases in the city of 300,000.
"If Zarqawi and his group are not handed over to us, we are ready for major operations in Falluja," Allawi said.
Falluja residents said they were dismayed by the ultimatum.
"It came as a real surprise to us, especially because we had heard the negotiations were about to reach a peaceful conclusion," said engineer Moyammed Ayash, 35.
Muadh Mohammed, a 21-year-old university student, said: "Allawi's statement has dropped us in a new crisis at a time when we were looking forward to a peaceful solution.
"We had hoped he would think in a completely different way to the Americans, but his statement is no different from the pretext the Americans are always using."
Last week Zarqawi's group beheaded Kenneth Bigley, the first British hostage to die in Iraq, after earlier decapitating two Americans kidnapped with him in Baghdad last month.
Six U.S. soldiers have been killed by roadside blasts and a suicide bombing in Iraq since Tuesday evening, taking the U.S. combat toll to 823 since last year's invasion.
Violence has blighted postwar reconstruction efforts and cast doubt on whether the elections can go ahead on time.
The United Nations may send 25 election specialists to Iraq before the planned polls, U.N. sources said on Wednesday.
For security reasons, the world body has kept only 35 staff in Iraq, of whom about six are dealing with the polls, compared to an original plan for at least double that number.
Iraqi President Ghazi Yawar told the Arabic Asharq al-Awsat daily the election deadline of Jan. 31 was not sacrosanct and could be changed to ensure free and comprehensive polls.
But Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalai, a spokesman for top Shi'ite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said the polls must go ahead on time to improve security and political conditions.
(With reporting by Fadel al-Badrani, Maher al-Thanoon in Mosul, Faris al-Mahdawi in Baquba and Miral Fahmy in Dubai)
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