Maliki Deputy Wounded in Blast

Deputy Prime Minister Salam Z. al-Zobaee suffered abdominal injuries in the bombing at his home. He was in stable condition Friday afternoon. (Pool Photo By Sabah Arar)

Zobaee's house, just outside the Green Zone, is inside a compound that encompasses many news agencies and the homes of other Iraqi political leaders.

The attack followed by a day a rocket attack that shook the hall where Maliki was holding a news conference with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. Last month, Iraq's Shiite vice president was wounded in an explosion inside the Ministry of Public Works.

Iraqi officials quickly condemned Friday's attack. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who is in his final days on the job in Baghdad, called the bombing "an example of what the forces of evil will do to try to intimidate the Iraqi people."

In an interview at his residence shortly before the bombing, Khalilzad said that he now sees al-Qaeda in Iraq as "the big threat" to stability in Iraq. In previous interviews, Khalilzad had pinpointed Shiite militias, such as cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, as Iraq's main troublemakers.

"They are refusing this political process," Ayad Samarrae, a member of parliament who belongs to the Iraqi Islamic Party, said of Sunni insurgents. "And it is clear that they are targeting all those who are a part of it."

Also Friday, the U.S. military announced the death of a Marine who was killed Thursday in Anbar province, west of Baghdad.

Special correspondent Waleed Saffar contributed to this report.