A top
Iraqi official said the attacks appeared to have been suicide bombings.
Witnesses said two men, each carrying a
backpack but not required ID badges, entered the Green Zone Cafe full of
Americans and other patrons at around lunchtime, drank tea and talked to each
other for nearly half an hour — one of them appearing to reassure his more
nervous colleague.
One of them then left and soon after an
explosion was heard, then the man who remained in the cafe detonated his bomb
moments later, ripping through the building, said an Iraqi vendor who was in the
cafe at the time.
The attack was a bold assault on the
heart of the U.S.-Iraqi leadership of the country and a serious setback to the
Bush administration's campaign to pacify postwar Iraq.
Tawhid and Jihad, the militant group of
Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the
blasts, saying they were "martyrdom" or suicide attacks.
Also Thursday, two U.S. soldiers were
killed in Baghdad, one in a roadside bombing in the morning and the second in a
shooting in the afternoon, the military said. As of Wednesday, 1,081 U.S.
servicemen had been killed in Iraq since March 2003, according to a Defense
Department count.
The Green Zone, a district of former
Saddam Hussein palaces in a bend of the Tigris River, was set up under the U.S.
occupation to house Americans involved in the administration. It came to
resemble a suburban "Little America" in central Baghdad — with green lawns,
restaurants, American television, U.S. area codes, even at least one swimming
pool set up behind barricades and multiple checkpoints.
Since the June handover of sovereignty,
the Iraqi government has set up its offices there, but hundreds of Americans
remain as part of the U.S. Embassy. In the increasing violence of recent months,
the American civilians rarely leave the Green Zone. Around 10,000 Iraqis also
live within the four square-mile zone, residents of the apartment buildings that
had to be included within the perimeter. They need IDs to move in and out of the
area.
Thursday's attack raised fears over
security in the compound and underscored militants' ability to strike in the
capital even as U.S.-Iraqi forces are carrying out a new offensive to suppress
them in other parts of the country ahead of January elections.
Insurgents have frequently fired mortar
rounds at the compound, and there have been a number of deadly car bombings at
its gates. But this was the first time a bomb was successfully brought in and
detonated.
One bomb ripped through an outdoor bazaar
that caters to Westerners, selling everything from mobile phone accessories to
pornographic DVDs.
The second blast took place at the Green
Zone Cafe. Witnesses said around 20 other patrons were in the cafe at the time,
about half of them American. Last week, an improvised bomb was found and safely
defused at the same cafe.
A U.S. military statement said the bombs
were "hand-carried" into the zone and that five people were killed in the blasts
and 20 people wounded, including one U.S. soldier, an American airman and two
U.S. civilians, the statement said.
U.S. officials in Washington said the
four Americans killed in the blasts were employees of the private U.S. security
firm DynCorp. The officials said two State Department officials and another
DynCorp employee were among the wounded.
Iraq's national security adviser Qassem
Dawoud said "initial information" indicated the attacks were suicide bombings.
"This cowardly act will not go unpunished," he told a news briefing at the Green
Zone. "We will strike them wherever they are."
After the blasts, the U.S. Embassy
"strongly encouraged" Americans in the Green Zone to avoid the bazaar and
restaurants inside the compound, limit their movements, travel in groups and
carry several means of communication.
An Iraqi vendor who was in the cafe at
the time of the blast said the two men believed to be the bombers "walked into
the restaurant carrying two large handbags."
One of the men appeared shaken and
nervous and the other appeared to be "reassuring him to do something, but we
could not hear what it was," said the Iraqi, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because he feared it becoming known he works in the Green Zone.
He said he and another companion
attempted to inquire about the two men when they started suspecting them. The
waiter who took the men's orders said they spoke in a Jordanian accent.
One of the men left the building, took a
taxi and a couple of minutes later "we heard a loud boom."
"It was then that the second bomber blew
himself up," the witness said, struggling to hear the questions after the
explosion had marred his hearing. "I fell on the floor, then quickly gathered
myself and ran for my life."
Mohammed al-Obeidi, the owner of a nearby
restaurant who was wounded by flying glass from the cafe blast, said security in
the zone has weakened since Iraqi police took a greater role with the June
handover of power.
"Before it was really safe. They (the
Americans) passed it over to the Iraqis ... the Iraqi Police. When they see
someone they know, it's just, 'Go on in.' They don't understand it's for our
safety," al-Obeidi said.
The Tawhid and Jihad group, led by the
Jordanian al-Zarqawi, has claimed a series of bloody bombings across the country
as well as the kidnapping and beheading of a number of foreign hostages —
including three Americans.
Another group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army
posted a video Thursday on the Web showing the beheading of a man identified as
a Turkish driver.
More than 150 foreigners have been
kidnapped in Iraq since the insurgency began.
U.S. and Iraqi forces have stepped up
military operations in Sunni militant strongholds across a wide swathe of
territory north and west of Baghdad on the eve of the Muslim holy month of
Ramadan, which last year saw a surge in rebel attacks.
U.S. warplanes on Thursday struck at
least three sites in the insurgent-held city of Fallujah that the command said
were being used by followers of al-Zarqawi. At least five people were killed and
16 wounded in all, according to Fallujah General Hospital.
