Iraqi president ill, goes to Jordan for treatment Woman bomber kills at least 40, wounds 55, in Sunday bombing at university BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Insurgents bombed Iraq's Ministry of Municipalities building as top Iraqi officials gathered there Monday morning for a celebration, Iraqi officials said.
The attack killed at least 12 people and wounded 42 others, including Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi, the officials said.
Mahdi, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq -- a powerful Shiite political group -- suffered minor injuries to his hand and leg in the blast, SCIRI spokesman Haithem al-Husseini told CNN.
Mahdi went home immediately after the attack, then had his injuries checked at a hospital, where he was treated and released, al-Husseini said.
Two Municipalities Ministry officials were also among those wounded in the late-morning attack on the building, located in the western Baghdad district of Mansour, an Iraqi Health Ministry official said.
The SCIRI spokesman said he suspects the attackers were Sunni extremists who were targeting the government officials.
It was very well known that it's going to be attended by some of the top officials of the government, al-Husseini said.
He blamed the attackers for trying to provoke a kind of a sectarian sedition between moderate Sunni and Shiite groups in Iraq.
[The moderate groups] all know about the bad intentions of those terrorist groups and they are not going to be dragged into such kind of troubles, the spokesman said.
An investigation was under way to determine where the explosive device was planted, how it got past security, and who was behind the attack.
Al-Husseini said some believe the bomb may have been placed on the roof above the hall where the ceremony took place.
Meanwhile, Iraq's president was to undergo medical tests in Jordan on Monday, after becoming ill Sunday and being flown from northern Iraq, his office said in a statement.
Jalal Talabani's office said the president was conscious and in good spirits. ( )
Weapons cache discovered
The U.S.military announced Monday that U.S. forces and Iraqi police uncovered a large weapons cache in a palm grove in the village of Jedida near Baquba over the weekend, following a tip by citizen.
The cache found on Saturday included deadly armor-piercing explosives and the elements to construct more of the weapons known as explosively formed projectiles.
The vigilance of the Iraqi Police and the willingness of the people of Diyala to end the cycle of violence led to this discovery, said Col. David Sutherland, a senior U.
S. Army officer in Diyala province.
The terrorists and sectarian fighters who use these explosives have no other desire than to stop the progress of the country, Sutherland said.
Their hatred manifests itself in the weapons that these supplies would have been used for.
Female suicide bomber kills 40
Sunday, a combination of rocket and bomb attacks -- the worst taking place at the entrance to a Baghdad university -- killed more than 50 people and wounded dozens of others in Iraq.The suicide bomber was a woman, an official with the Iraqi Interior Ministry told CNN, based on eyewitness accounts.
At least 40 people were killed and 55 wounded in the blast.
Most of the dead were students, the official said.
A 22-year-old student, Muhanad Nasir, told AP he saw a commotion at the gate.
Then there was an explosion. I did not feel anything for 15 minutes, and when I returned to consciousness, I found myself in the hospital, said Nasir, who had injuries to his head and chest.( )
The metal gate to the college was twisted by the force of the blast and shrapnel tore chunks out of the cement walls, AP reported.
Video from the scene showed people using rags and clothes to mop up puddles of blood.
Elsewhere in Baghdad Sunday, two rockets landed in an outdoor market in the Abu Dishir Shiite neighborhood, killing at least 10 people, and a car bomb exploded in central Baghdad just 100 yards from the Iranian embassy, killing at least one person, officials said.
Anti-U.
S. cleric says security plan doomed to fail Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said Sunday that the U.S.
-backed Baghdad security plan was not stopping violence in the Iraqi capital, and was doomed to fail, AP reported.
Many in Iraq believe al-Sadr agreed to requests from the Shiite-led government to rein in his Mehdi Army militia to give the plan a chance to work, AP said.
His Sunday statement suggests he is losing patience and increases pressure on U.
S. and Iraqi forces to make the crackdown successful, AP reported.
Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie told CNN on Sunday the security plan needs time to work and it could take months before there are tangible successes over the sectarian warfare in the Iraqi capital.
We should not look at this Baghdad security plan in terms of days or even weeks, al-Rubaie said. Probably we will see a tangible success or measurable success by Easter time [early April].
Al-Rubaie also said Iran has stopped interfering in Iraq's affairs and has advised its allies inside Iraq to support the government and the Baghdad security plan.
( )
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Saturday the U.S.-Iraqi crackdown on insurgents has dismantled terrorist cells and yielded the arrests and killing of hundreds of insurgents.
The prime minister said 426 suspected insurgents have been detained and roughly the same number killed.
CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.
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