A bomb tore through a minibus carrying civil servants yesterday, killing 14 people and wounding nine in the bloodiest of three explosions in Baghdad that left at least 20 dead.

A woman suicide bomber was blamed for the second attack outside an entrance to the fortified green zone in the heart of the capital. Five people were killed and 17 wounded. The third bomb, planted at a roadside in east Baghdad, left two more people dead and four wounded.

The attacks, a reminder of Iraq’s enduring instability, came as MPs prepared to vote on whether to approve an agreement with America over the stationing of US troops. The pact calls for the phasing out of the US military presence over the next three years. The UN mandate authorising the deployment of US forces in Iraq is due to expire at the end of next month.

There is speculation that a rise in bombings in recent weeks is designed to foment instability as debate swirls over the Status of Forces Agreement, which is supported by Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister but opposed by smaller political factions, such as MPs loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, the anti-American Shia cleric.

The minibus had stopped at a residential neighbourhood in the east of the capital to allow women and men working at the Trade Ministry to board. As it drove away, a bomb fixed next to its petrol tank exploded, incinerating many of those on board, according to police and hospital officials. Such “sticky bombs” are increasingly being used to assassinate government employees and security officials.

Of the 14 dead in the minibus, at least seven were women. Nine other people were hurt, Iraqi officials said. Ten bodies were burnt beyond recognition.

The attack, which happened just after 7.30am, shocked local people. “We did not expect they would target a civilian bus filled with women,” said one shopkeeper.

Less than an hour later, at the height of rush hour, the suicide bomber hiding the explosives under her long robe blew herself up near a main green zone entrance, where Iraqi staff were queueing to pass through security checkpoints. An Iraqi intelligence official said that the blast was at the entrance to a corridor of checkpoints leading to their headquarters.

The green zone houses a number of government buildings as well as the US and British embassies. Pieces of flesh were splattered across concrete barriers around the site, which the police and Army sealed off after rushing to help the wounded and take away the dead.

A main road leading to the green zone was also closed, preventing hundreds of people from going to work or attending meetings.

Hashim al-Korayshi, the deputy editor of a local magazine who lives near the blast site, said that he thought the attack was connected to the upcoming vote on the US-Iraqi security deal. “The recent rise in violence is because of the agreement. There are foreign sides interfering,” Mr Korayshi, 42, said.

In Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, a policeman was killed when a roadside bomb exploded.

Parliament is due to vote on the pact tomorrow after the Cabinet approved it last Sunday.

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