The bomb was hidden outside a fence encircling the Badr Organization offices in a Shiite area in eastern Baghdad, police said. The organization was once one of Iraq’s most feared militias and is linked to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a Shiite party with close ties to Iran.
The blast killed one office worker and injured another, police said. Two passers-by were also wounded. A worker at Al-Kindi hospital confirmed the casualties.
A motive for the bombing was not known, but the Badr Organization has frequently scuffled with its rival Shiite militia, the Mahdi Army, which is headed by anti-American cleric Muqtada Sadr. The cleric recently returned to Iraq from nearly four years of self-exile in Iran to bolster his political influence.
The afternoon bomb followed two earlier explosions in Baghdad that police and health officials said wounded 10 people during the morning rush hour.
Seven of the wounded were on a bus in north Baghdad as it carried municipal officials to work. Another blast wounded three bodyguards of the science and technology minister in Jadriyah district. The minister was not in the convoy.
Baghdad still suffers from persistent small-scale attacks despite a sharp drop in violence since the height of the war three years ago.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
