Al-Zarqawi group behind bomb attack

The terrorists who beheaded British hostage Ken Bigley claimed responsibility today for daring suicide attacks inside Baghdad’s heavily guarded Green Zone that killed five people, including three American civilians.

The US military said the bombs appeared to have been ”hand-carried” into the zone – the first time insurgents have successfully infiltrated and set off bombs in the heart of the US -Iraqi leadership of the country.

The attack raised fears over security in the compound – the heart of the US occupation of Iraq – and underscored militants’ ability to strike in the capital even as American and Iraqi forces step up military operations to suppress them in other parts of the country.

Iraq’s most feared terrorist group, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s Tawhid and Jihad, claimed responsibility for the ”martyrdom” – suicide - operations.

A US military statement said five people were killed, including three Americans, and 18 wounded, including two American soldiers and two American civilians.

The Green Zone – home to about 10,000 Iraqis, as well as government officials, foreign diplomats and military personnel – is a regular target of insurgents. Mortar rounds are frequently fired at the compound and there have also been a number of deadly car bombings at its gates.

Last week, a bomb was found in front of the Green Zone Café but was defused.

After today’s blasts, the US embassy “strongly encouraged” Americans living or working in the Green Zone to limit their movements, travel in groups, carry several means of communication and avoid the bazaar and restaurants inside the compound.

Earlier today, a bomb blast in eastern Baghdad killed an American soldier and wounded two others.

An Iraqi female TV reporter was killed by gunmen in a morning drive-by shooting in the capital.

Zeina Mahmoud, who worked for Kurdish-run Al-Hurriya TV, was shot by three assailants driving by in an Opel car, said officials.

In an apparently unrelated shooting that took place less than a half mile away, a judge was shot dead just minutes earlier.