Four Americans, six Iraqis killed in Green Zone: State Department

WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (AFP) - At least four US citizens and six Iraqis were killed in two attacks Thursday in the Green Zone in Baghdad, the State Department said.
The four Americans killed were security staff with a private company on contract to protect the US embassy in Baghdad, spokesman Richard Boucher said, adding that embassy staff had been ordered to remain in the heavily fortified facility until further notice.
The four were killed in a blast in "Vendors Alley" a Green Zone district where peddlers work sell souvenirs, handicrafts, he said.
That blast also seriously injured a fifth US embassy contractor and slightly wounded two State Department employees and an undetermined number of Iraqis, Boucher said.
The six Iraqis were killed in a second attack that occurred in the "Green Zone Cafe," he said, adding that several Americans and locally hired Iraqis working for the US embassy sustained minor injuries in that explosion.
A US military source in Baghdad said earlier that five people, including three US civilian employees of the Defense Department had been killed in the two attacks.
Boucher condemned the attacks, calling them "another example of where there are terrorists who want to attack the Iraqis, who want to attack us, and want to attack anybody who's trying to establish opportunity and freedom for the Iraqi people."