Yesterday, 50 meters from the building in the “green zone” of Baghdad, where a press conference was held by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a mortar shell exploded. In the live broadcast, plaster could be seen falling from the ceiling onto the crouching UN Secretary General, an explosion and the sound of broken glass could be heard. Ban Ki-moon arrived in Baghdad yesterday on a surprise visit. This is his first trip to Iraq since taking over as UN secretary general in January. During the ten-day voyage, he will visit Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.
Before the meeting with the UN Secretary General, Prime Minister al-Maliki held talks with Ahmad al-Shibani, an ally of the rebel imam Muqtada al-Sadr, who was released from an American prison in Iraq on Wednesday. Radical religious leader al-Shibani spent about two years in prison. He was released at the request of the Iraqi government, which hopes to win the rebel leaders to its side through negotiations. Iraqi Ministry of National Dialogue and Reconciliation spokesman Saad Yousif al-Muttalibi said the government had already established contacts with major groups not linked to al-Qaeda.
