Seven people died in two attacks in the Iraqi capital on Sunday, including a mortar strike on the Green Zone, Iraqi officials said. In the deadliest attack, at least four civilians died and 23 others were hurt in a bombing outside a police recruitment centre in the Al-Yarmuk district of western Baghdad, interior ministry and hospital officials said. According to the AP, the victims were waiting to sign up to the police force when the bombing took place.
Another three people were killed and seven wounded in the mortar attack on the Green Zone. An interior ministry official said the attack apparently targeted the defence ministry but that the mortar bomb landed at one of the entrances to the zone.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Sunday tried to reassure Iran over a planned security pact with Washington, vowing Iraq would never allow use of its territory to "harm" the Islamic republic. "We will not allow Iraq to become a platform for harming the security of Iran and neighbours," Maliki said after a late-night meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in Tehran.
Maliki's remarks come amid Iranian alarm over U.S. pressure on Baghdad to sign an agreement that would keep US soldiers in the country beyond 2008.
Maliki, quoted by Iran's state news agency IRNA, said: "Iraq's stability and security can have a great impact on the region ... We see the implementation of peace and security in Iraq and Iran as what both countries want."
Mottaki, meanwhile, vowed that relations would expand further, saying the Iraqi delegation would "find good ground for creating new strategies in deepening the two countries' ties," according to IRNA.
