Mortar attack on PM's offices

Four mortar rounds rocked a neighbourhood near the political party headquarters of Iraq’s new interim prime minister today, injuring six people, an Interior Ministry official said.

The attacks on a stretch of Zeitoun Street in central Baghdad also hit near a home owned by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Allawi was not present at the home at the time.

About an hour later, another explosion rocked Baghdad. The US military had no immediate word on the explosions.

The attacks came only hours before the interim government was set to unveil a long-anticipated law giving Allawi the authority to impose emergency measures to safeguard the country’s security.

The new law gives Iraqi officials the ability to institute martial law for limited periods of time and under special circumstances.

The assault marked the second time Allawi’s party the Iraqi National Accord was targeted. In the days before US officials handed over power to Allawi’s interim government on June 28, insurgents overran the offices of the Iraq National Accord in Baqouba, an insurgent hotspot north of the capital, Baghdad.

No one was injured in the assault, which occurred the same day that offices of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq – one of the country’s biggest Shiite parties – also came under attack. Three party members were killed and two others injured in the assault.