Blast kills 10, 4 from the U.S.

Two of the slain Americans were soldiers, and two were civilian employees.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — One official was meeting with displaced people hoping to return home. Another was greeting a U.S. aid team ahead of a weekly meeting. Suddenly a blast ripped through the office — killing 10 people, including four of the Americans.

The blast struck inside a heavily guarded area of Baghdad’s sprawling Shiite enclave Sadr City, where the Americans were trying to help restore local services after weeks of fighting with militiamen.

Investigators suspected an inside job. How else could the bomber penetrate the strict security surrounding the complex?

It was the second deadly attack in as many days against Americans helping Iraqis build up their local administrations, raising questions about the risks of the U.S. program.

U.S. military and civilian officials have taken advantage of a sharp drop in violence to promote the local administration and restore services in Sadr City and other areas. Failure to do so could allow Sunni and Shiite extremists to regain a foothold, U.S. commanders believe.

The increased presence of the Americans in local communities has made them more vulnerable to attacks. But U.S. commanders believe that’s key to a strategy that has helped drive down the levels of violence to the lowest point in more than four years.

Secretary of State CondoleezzTwo of the U.S. dead were soldiers, as was one of the wounded, the military said. U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said the dead American civilians included one State Department and one Defense Department employee.

The State Department identified one of the slain Americans as Steven L. Farley of Guthrie, Okla. He was believed to be the first member of a provincial reconstruction team to be killed in Iraq.

The U.S. aid teams have been dispatched to teach, coach and mentor Iraqis and help them with reconstruction projects.

An Italian of Iraqi origin who was working as an interpreter for the Americans also was killed, according to the Italian Foreign Ministry.

Five Iraqi civilians also died, the U.S. military said. But an Iraqi Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said four Iraqi civilians were killed and 10 others wounded. The discrepancy could not immediately be reconciled.

The bomb exploded in the deputy council chief’s office where Iraqis and Americans were gathering about half an hour before a weekly meeting to elect a new chairman, officials said.

Council spokesman Ahmed Hassan said the blast took place as the Americans entered the room and started talking with the deputy council chief. The council chief, Hassan Hussein Shammah, was wounded in the leg.

Four council members were among the wounded, he said.

The district council headquarters is located in a heavily guarded southern section of Sadr City that is surrounded by a U.S.-built concrete wall and is largely controlled by U.S. and Iraqi troops.

Though U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces have gained control of much of Sadr City — a sprawling impoverished area that houses some 2.5 million people — the Americans have largely limited their activities to the southern section. The area had been a favorite staging ground for rocket attacks against the U.S.-protected Green Zone.

U.S. troops captured a suspect who was trying to flee the scene, the military said, claiming he tested positive for explosives residue. The military blamed the attack on “special groups criminals,” a term it uses for Shiite militiamen refusing to follow a cease-fire order by anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Suspicion fell on the headquarters’ Shiite guard force, and a witness said the Americans rounded up all the Iraqi guards at the building immediately after the explosion.

An initial investigation indicated the explosion was an inside job and that the bomb was likely planted on Monday to avoid the tightened security which accompanies the weekly Tuesday meetings, an Interior Ministry official said.

The explosion occurred a day after a suspected Sunni gunman opened fire on U.S. soldiers attending a municipal council meeting in Madain, about 14 miles southeast of Baghdad, killing two of the American troops along with an interpreter and wounding three other Americans.

In other violence Tuesday, gunmen killed the head of the local council who was linked to al-Sadr’s movement in Abu Dshir, a Shiite enclave in the mainly Sunni area of Dora in southern Baghdad.

A suicide car bomber also struck a market area in the northwestern city of Mosul, killing two people including a child, and wounding 70 others.