RAMADI, Iraq, July 4 (UPI) -- Two terrorist blasts killed at least four people and injured 25 others in Iraq Sunday as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden urged the formation of a new government.
A female bomber blew herself up outside an Iraqi provincial governor's office, killing at least four people and injuring 23 others, officials said.
Gov. Qassim Mohammed Abid of Anbar province and his two deputies were unharmed in the Ramadi attack, 68 miles west of Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said.
Less than 2 hours later, a suicide bomber wounded two police officers when he detonated an explosive belt near the Ninevah provincial government's headquarters in Mosul, a reputed al-Qaida haven 250 miles northwest of Baghdad, officials said.
The attacks came as Biden was in Baghdad trying to persuade Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Maliki's chief challenger, former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, to end a four-month political impasse and form a new government.
Within hours of Biden's meetings, mortar explosions were heard near the fortified Green Zone while Biden was there, The New York Times reported.
The zone includes the U.S. Embassy compound, the Iraqi parliament and the prime minister's office.
Biden and his wife Jill were safe, but it was unclear late Sunday if anyone else had been injured
In Ramadi, the female suicide bomber slipped through four checkpoints at the governor's compound with an explosive vest strapped to her chest, The Washington Post reported.
At the front desk she told employees she was there to collect compensation for her son, who she said was killed by insurgents, police spokesman Maj. Firas al-Dulaimy told the newspaper.
In a hallway next to the governor's office, she detonated her vest, Dulaimy said. Women and children were among the casualties, he said.
In Mosul, the suicide bomber detonated his explosive belt as police shot him, police said.
