A suicide car bomber attacked Monday a checkpoint near the entrance to the Green Zone. At least 13 people were killed in the blast, Baghdad hospital sources said. 15 people were also wounded.
A police officer told the AP the blast occurred when a car that had been waiting in line to enter the zone at the western Harthiyah gate detonated as it drove up to the checkpoint.
Meanwhile, seven U.S. Marines died in two separate incidents in Iraq's Anbar province, the military said Monday, a day after American warplanes pounded Fallujah, which is located in this province, with missiles.
In its statement, the U.S. military said the seven Marines killed while conducting "security and stabilization operations" in Anbar province, a region that comprises also the city of Ramadi.
The U.S. Army had earlier reported another U.S. Marine death Sunday in Anbar.
As of Monday, at least 1,296 members of the U.S. military have died since the launch of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Elsewhere, two Iraqis died Sunday after detonating their explosives-packed car alongside an American M1 Abrams battle tank in Tikrit, north of Baghdad, at about 10:45 a.m.. No American soldiers were wounded and the tank sustained negligible damage.
