Baghdad bomb kills Iraqis, Americans

FRESH VIOLENCE: A bomb killed 10 people including two US government employees and two US soldiers at a council meeting in Baghdad on Tuesday. (Getty Images)

A bomb killed 10 people including two US government employees and two US soldiers at a council meeting in the Baghdad stronghold of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr on Tuesday, officials said.

Police said six Iraqis were killed and 10 wounded in the attack at a local council building in southern Sadr City.

The US military blamed renegade Shi'ite militias called "special groups" for the bombing. That is jargon for rogue elements of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia that the military says are equipped, trained and funded by Iran. Tehran denies the charges.

US forces also blamed a special group cell for a truck bomb that killed 63 people in a Shi'ite neighbourhood of Baghdad a week ago.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the deaths of the US civilians, one from the State Department and the other from the Defense Department, were "a terrible reminder of the dangers that our colleagues face daily in advancing our critical foreign policy goals".

The US military said a suspect who had tested positive for explosives residue had been caught trying to flee the scene. That suggests a bomb was planted in the council building.

Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover, a US military spokesman, said the target of the attack was believed to be a high-ranking council member. It was unclear if that person survived.

Stover said the rogue Shi'ite militant groups were unhappy the council member was working with US forces.

Mahmud Al-Zamili, a member of Sadr City's council, said the blast occurred inside the office of the deputy head of the council. Police said the deputy was among the wounded.

"Special groups are afraid of progress and afraid of empowering the people," Lieutenant-Colonel John Digiambatista, operations officer, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, said in a statement.

The US military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, told US lawmakers in April that the "special groups" were the greatest long-term threat to the viability of a democratic Iraq. (Reuters)

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