At least 11 people were killed and 26 were injured in two separate blasts in Baghdad on Tuesday, police said. In the first blast, seven people were killed and 18 were wounded around noon at a car park in the al-Mashtal area of eastern Baghdad.
Later four people died and eight were hurt when a roadside bomb went off in the al-Qahira district of northern Baghdad, police said.
Meanwhile, a top Shiite lawmaker said on Tuesday that Baghdad has received "positive" signals from Washington for the changes which Iraq proposed to the draft security deal between the two countries. According to AFP, Sami al-Askari of the ruling Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) said the Iraqi negotiators had "received positive indications from the Americans regarding the changes proposed in the SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement)."
"But we are yet to receive their response officially," Askari told AFP.
On Tuesday, the Baghdad edition of the London-based newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat said the Americans had agreed to three of the five latest changes proposed by Iraq. It said, quoting unnamed sources, that Washington had dropped the clause that authorises Baghdad and Washington to seek an extension for retaining troops in the cities beyond 2009 and in the country beyond 2011.
