Bombings in Iraq kill 21 ahead of vote on pact

Insurgents show defiance; Government workers hit

An Iraqi civilian inspected the wreckage of a bus in Baghdad yesterday after a bomb exploded, killing 14 people. (Hadi Mizban/ Associated Press)

BAGHDAD - Three bombings targeting Iraqi government employees and the US-fortified Green Zone killed at least 21 people and left scores wounded yesterday, two days before the Iraqi Parliament is expected to vote on a much-debated security agreement with the United States.

The attacks illustrated the vulnerability of Iraq's security apparatus and the lingering defiance of an insurgency whose influence has declined in recent months.

In the deadliest attack, a magnetic bomb demolished a bus used by employees of the Ministry of Trade, killing 14 people and wounding seven, police said. Eight women were among the dead. The bomb, police said, was attached to the fuel tank of the bus, which erupted in flames.

Fuad Falih, a police officer guarding a checkpoint about 90 feet from the site of the explosion, said one of the victims was a pregnant woman. Hospital officials said many of the victims were so badly burned they could not immediately be identified.

"We have seen many victims of bombing before but we never cried about them like this one," Falih said.

In the second attack, a suicide bomber blew herself up as she waited in line to be searched at an entrance to the Green Zone, killing five people and wounding 12, police said. All the dead were government employees, witnesses said. The heavily protected Green Zone includes the US Embassy and Iraqi government buildings.

An Iraqi army commander staffing the entrance said the attacker wore a traditional head-to-toe black abaya that concealed the bomb.

"One of the guards tried to stop her but she exploded herself, killing him," said the commander, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. "Her explosive belt was loaded with small metal balls, which caused many injuries."

Insurgents have long used mortar shells and car bombs to strike entrances to the Green Zone. The most recent such attack occurred Oct. 7 when two explosions injured two Iraqi soldiers and several civilians.

In another attack yesterday, a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol near Technology University in eastern Baghdad, killing two civilians, police said. Two police officers were among four wounded people.

Suicide bombings are associated with the Sunni-led insurgency. Al Qaeda in Iraq has been increasingly using women as suicide attackers because their billowing robes easily conceal explosives. Iraqi police often lack enough policewomen to search women carefully.

Iraq's Parliament is expected to meet tomorrow to vote on a security pact that would allow US troops to remain in Iraq until the end of 2011 and require them to work more closely with Iraqi forces. US troops have been instrumental in weakening the insurgency.

There was no evidence that yesterday's attacks were linked to the contentious debate over the security pact, but they could bolster the Iraqi government's claim that a hasty American departure could undermine the relative stability that many parts of Iraq have enjoyed since 2007.

That argument is key to efforts by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to win Parliament's broad approval for the accord.

A simple majority of 138 votes in the 275-seat parliament is required to approve the deal. With the majority of Shi'ites and Kurdish lawmakers supporting the agreement, approval is likely.

But Iraq's preeminent Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, has said that the agreement should have support from all of Iraq's sects in order for it to be seen as legitimate.

Many Sunni politicians, concerned that the pact could give too much power to Iraq's Shi'ite-led government, have not yet declared their support. Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni who is the Parliament speaker, has urged about 50 lawmakers to delay traveling to Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage to Mecca until after the vote.

Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.