BAGHDAD, Oct 14 (AFP) - Two Jordanians carrying bags calmly ordered tea at a cafe in Baghdad's Green Zone Thursday, minutes before blasts there and at a nearby bazaar killed at least five people, a waiter said after surviving one of the blasts.
"Two people came in. They had two handbags," said Abdul Razak Mohammed, a waiter at the so-called Green Zone Cafe, one of two places frequented by foreigners and targeted in the attacks.
Mohammed said one man ordered tea and was asked by another cafe employee if they were Iraqis and the man answered, "No, we're Jordanians."
He described the men as being about 25 years old, adding that one of them got up and left and that the first explosion at the bazaar followed five minutes later.
The US military said the cafe bomb went off at 12:55 pm (0955 GMT), five minutes after the blast at the Green Zone Bazaar.
Mohammed, who had gone to the toilet, was not wounded in the blast.
Soldiers and civilians, both Iraqi and foreign, regularly go to those places to eat and shop.
At least one suicide bomber was involved, US officials said, while the other attack may have also been by a kamikaze or involved a planted device.
The orange canvas-covered corner cafe was wrecked following the blast, the floor littered with glass, blood and food, with pieces of flesh up to 50 feet (15 metres) from the cafe's twisted metal remains.
Cars in front of the building had their windscreens smashed, while a two foot by two foot (60 centimetre by 60 centimetre) crater inside the cafe testified to the force of the blast.
There were around 18 customers in the cafe at the time of the blast, including "maybe 10 Americans" and four workers, the waiter said.
Minutes after the attack police and emergency sirens were heard wailing in the area and a helicopter circled around the column of smoke spiraling skywards on the western edge of the Green Zone.
Mohammed Nawaf al-Obeidi, who owns a nearby cafe, was visiting the Green Zone Cafe when the attacks happened.
"People were screaming ... People were stampeding, trying to get out," he said.
"It's definitely because it's the start of Ramadan. They're killing their own people," he said, referring to the Muslim holy month of fasting that begins on Friday.
At least five people were killed in the attacks, including three American civilians, and 20 others wounded, a US army officer said.
A claim for the attacks has been attributed to the group of Jordanian-born militant Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, an Al-Qaeda operative and Iraq's most wanted man.
An AFP correspondent close to the scene said checkpoints at the Green Zone were sealed preventing all vehicles from entering or exiting.
A young man, who gave his name as Hassan, said he rushed to check on his brother, a vendor, and saw the cafe on fire and the concrete blocks around the shopping alley smashed in.
"Except for a security situation like today, the Green Zone was the safest place in the world," he said.
Visiting cafe owner Obeidi said that security had relaxed since responsibility was handed over to Iraqi forces.
"Before it was really safe. They passed it over to the Iraqis ... when they see someone they know, it's just, 'Go on in.' They don't understand it's for our safety," he said.
US First Sergeant Steven Valley said that the clientele at the Green Zone cafe had decreased sharply in the past two weeks.
"It used to be hard to find a parking space. Business has dropped dramatically," he said.