IRAQ: Suicide bombers penetrated America's heavily-fortified "green zone" in the heart of Baghdad for the first time yesterday, killing five people in two blasts that tore through a restaurant and a street market.
The bombs were "hand-carried explosives", the military said, and were taken in by two suicide bombers. At least three US security contractors were among the dead. They worked for DynCorp.
Another 20 people were injured, mostly Iraqis, as well as four more Americans.
Although Iraq's insurgency has grown increasingly sophisticated since the invasion, bombers had never breached the US army sentries, concrete walls and rows of razor wire to strike at the heart of US and Iraqi power in Baghdad.
The explosions represent a dangerous new stage in the insurgency, and, on the eve of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, many fear they may herald a wave of intense violence.
The two bombs exploded at 12.40 p.m. yesterday, sending a column of smoke rising over the "green zone", the vast riverbank complex centred on Saddam's palace that is now home to the US and British embassies, the Iraqi government and much of the US military operation.
One blast struck at a street market, known as Vendor Alley, where Iraqis run stalls selling clothes, DVDs and souvenirs to western contractors, soldiers and diplomats. The second was at a restaurant called the Green Zone cafe, which is frequented by soldiers and western diplomats.
One source working in the area said last night that the son of the cafe's owner had been kidnapped several days ago and was released after a ransom was paid. The kidnappers had threatened to bomb the cafe.
Lieut Col James Hutton, a spokesman for the 1st Cavalry Division, said the bombs "appeared to be hand-carried explosives".
Within hours, the extremist group Tawhid and Jihad, led by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had claimed responsibility.
"Two lions from the Tawhid and Jihad group's Martyrdom Brigade managed to get inside the green zone in the capital Baghdad," it said in a statement on the internet. The group had previously claimed responsibility for the kidnap and murder of British engineer Ken Bigley.
"This cowardly act will not go unpunished," said Mr Qasim Dawoud, the Iraqi national security adviser.
Just a week ago, a bomb was discovered for the first time inside the complex at the cafe attacked yesterday. US and British citizens in the complex were promptly ordered to avoid the restaurants and the street market.
Mortar rounds are fired at the complex most nights, and several suicide car bombs have exploded at the gates to the zone. One earlier this year killed the head of the Iraqi governing council.
Elsewhere in Iraq, the violence continued. The US military launched another bombing raid on the insurgent stronghold of Falluja, killing five people, according to hospital officials.
An Iraqi woman journalist and a judge were gunned down in two attacks in Baghdad.
Two senior Iraqi army officers were killed in Baquba, north of the capital, and a militant group posted a video on the internet showing the beheading of a Turkish truck driver.
Two more Turkish and two Iraqi truck drivers were kidnapped near the town of Samarra.