Suicide Blasts Kill 6 Inside Iraq Safe Area

Two suicide bombers detonated explosives-laden backpacks Thursday inside the heavily barricaded Green Zone, killing at least six civilians -- including four Americans -- in the first suicide attacks within the area that houses the offices of the interim Iraqi government and the U.S. and British embassies.

More than 18 people were wounded in two blasts, which occurred seconds apart at the Green Zone Restaurant and Coffee Shop and a nearby marketplace where dozens of Iraqi vendors hawked soda, DVDs, electronics and other goods.

U.S. and Iraqi officials said the attacks probably were the start of an onslaught of violence coinciding with Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting that begins today. Last year, violence escalated during the same period.

Also Thursday, four U.S. soldiers were killed in attacks by insurgents. Two died after their vehicle was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in Ramadi, west of the capital. Another was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad and the fourth was hit with small-arms fire while on patrol, the military said. The deaths brought to 1,081 the number of American military personnel killed since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq 18 months ago.

The suicide bombings were the most deadly attacks inside the U.S.-controlled Green Zone, a 4-square-mile compound surrounded by blast walls, concertina wire and armed checkpoints.

Home to thousands of American soldiers, diplomats, contractors and Iraqi employees, the Green Zone was designed to serve as a safe haven for Westerners in Iraq. Many of its residents don’t venture outside the protected compound.

But it has become a frequent target for insurgents. Last week, military officials safely removed a shopping bag containing a small bomb left in the same Green Zone Restaurant, which is popular with foreigners.

About noon Thursday, while about 18 other people were having lunch, two men who appeared to be in their mid-20s and were dressed in jeans and T-shirts entered the cafe carrying black backpacks over their shoulders, witnesses said.

The men ordered two cups of tea, sat down and talked for about 20 minutes, witnesses said. One man kept his hand inside the backpack as they spoke, said Abdul Razak Mohammed, 32, a waiter at the cafe.

Mohammed said he had never seen the men in the restaurant and asked where they were from. They told him they were Jordanian, he said.

After a while, one of the men stood and began talking intently to the other. “We think he was brainwashing him, telling him what to do,” Mohammed said.

The man who was doing the talking then left the cafe and got into a taxi, which he apparently rode a short distance to the shopping bazaar.

About five minutes later, Mohammed “Mo” Nawaf Obeidi, 25, who was sitting at the restaurant, heard a huge explosion at the bazaar.

“I knew something else was going to happen then,” Obeidi said. Seconds later, the restaurant -- housed in a large canvas-covered metal tent with rows of picnic tables -- was destroyed by the second blast.

“People were screaming. I was on the floor,” said Obeidi, who operates his own restaurant in the Green Zone and who suffered a hand injury from flying glass. “People were stampeding, trying to get out.”

Jamaat al Tawhid wal Jihad, an Islamist group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the blasts, which left deep craters in the ground and scattered glass, blood and pieces of plastic furniture across a large area.

Restaurant employees, bandaged and still shaken by the blast, sat in the rubble as U.S. and Iraqi investigators searched for clues.

At the marketplace, more than a dozen shops were destroyed and a fire sent up large plumes of smoke that could be seen across the city. Three hours after the attack, emergency workers were still treating the injured, many of whom suffered burns and shrapnel wounds.

At least three of the four Americans who died in the bazaar attack worked for DynCorp security company. DynCorp trains security personnel and police in Iraq and carries out contracts for the FBI and other federal agencies. It was bought last year by Computer Sciences Corp. of El Segundo.

A company statement identified the dead employees as John Pinsonneault, 39, of North Branch, Minn.; Steve Osborne, 40, of Kennesaw, Ga; and Eric Miner, 44, of South Windham, Conn.

The statement said Ferdinand Ibaboa, 36, of Mesa, Ariz., was missing and presumed dead. A wounded employee, identified as John Jenkins, 39, of Meridian, Ga., was hospitalized with serious injuries, and another worker, Michael Cannon, 34, of Holly Springs, N.C., was treated and released.

“The management and staff of CSC and its DynCorp International business unit stand united in our sadness over the deaths and injuries of our employees,” said the statement by CSC, which had lost at least three DynCorp employees in previous attacks.

After the attack Thursday, U.S. military officials tightened security inside the zone, sending workers home and blocking access to the restaurant and bazaar sites. Most contractors issued “lock-down” orders, advising their employees to stay inside their hotel rooms or trailers until further notice.

U.S. military officials said they had received intelligence suggesting that insurgents planned to target the Green Zone over the next month. As a result, security has increased at checkpoints, officials said.

In a news conference Thursday afternoon, Iraq’s national security director Kasim Daoud condemned the attacks, but said they were not a surprise.

“We expected the terrorists at the beginning of Ramadan to shed the blood of innocent people,” he said. “The act will not go unpunished.”

It was unclear how the suicide bombers got the explosives inside the Green Zone. Because of the many searches required to enter at most checkpoints, it’s unlikely that the bombers could have walked in with the loaded backpacks.

The bombers might have gradually smuggled in explosive materials over time and then assembled the bombs, one official said. They might have sneaked into the zone, where some borders are protected only by concertina wire. A heavy sandstorm Wednesday night could have provided cover for the bombers, a military official said.

Obeidi complained that security became more lax after the U.S. military began to hand over control to Iraqi security forces, whom he said were not as rigorous in searching visitors.

“Before it was really safe,” he said. Then, “they passed it over to the Iraqis, the Iraqi national guard, the Iraqi police. When they see someone they know, it’s just, ‘Go on in.’ They don’t understand it’s for our safety.”

The double suicide attack inside the fortified Green Zone further eroded the illusion of security in the compound. Although insurgents regularly fire mortar rounds and rockets at the zone, most of them land without causing damage or injury. In March, one such strike killed a Bechtel Group subcontractor employed at the engineering giant’s facility inside the zone.

After the bomb was found last week in the restaurant, the U.S. Embassy issued a security advisory to Green Zone residents, urging them to avoid the restaurant and the bazaar, known in the compound as Haji Mart.

“It’s been on the do-not-go list for months,” said Eileen Padberg, a contractor from Laguna Niguel who arrived in Baghdad in June.

Early Thursday, Daoud repeated the interim government’s warning to insurgents and the residents of Fallouja that a joint U.S.-Iraqi attack was imminent unless the city rid itself of guerrillas and handed over Zarqawi.

U.S. troops blocked highways in and out of Fallouja late Thursday night and launched another aerial attack on several neighborhoods. Early in the evening, some residents began fleeing the city after watching insurgents set up positions on rooftops and in mosques, preparing to battle U.S. and Iraqi security forces.

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Times staff writers Joseph Menn in San Francisco and Claudia Luther in Los Angeles contributed to this report.