A suicide bomber on Monday killed seven people and wounded an MP in an attack at an entrance to Baghdad’s heavily secured Green Zone, where the Iraqi government is based, officials said. The attacker drove up to the entrance situated at the July 14 bridge, which is manned by Iraqi soldiers and lies across the Tigris River from the Green Zone, before detonating an explosives-rigged vehicle, an interior ministry official said. The blast killed seven people and wounded at least 24, according to the official and a medical source. MP Habib Hamza al-Turfi was among those wounded, another deputy, Ammar Toma, told AFP. The mangled remains of a Humvee armoured vehicle could be seen at the site of the blast, which was swarming with Iraqi soldiers. Twisted and burned pieces of metal were scattered around for dozens of metres (yards). Iraqi soldiers and police armed with M-16 and Kalashnikov assault rifles cordoned off the main road leading to the July 14 entrance, and deployed Humvees mounted with machine guns on the street. Federal police and soldiers also stopped cars and pedestrians from approaching the main road via side streets, although some people still managed to gather at the site. “The sound of the explosion was huge and the sound of gunfire could be heard in the area” after the blast, a witness told AFP.
