Baghdad Mortar Attack Kills 1, Wounds Six

A mortar attack in Baghdad killed one person and wounded six others on Thursday, in the second attack in the capital during key talks on Iran's nuclear program, security and medical officials said.

An interior ministry official said a mortar round struck a street in the Bataween area of central Baghdad, which lies across the Tigris River from the heavily-fortified Green Zone, where the talks between Iran and world powers pressing it to scale back its nuclear program are taking place.

The official put the toll at one dead and six wounded, which was confirmed by a medical source at Ibn al-Nafis hospital.

On Wednesday, the first day of the talks, four people were wounded by a roadside bomb near a Sunni mosque in al-Yarmuk in west Baghdad.

The attacks come despite heightened security measures in and around the Iraqi capital.

Thousands of additional Iraqi security personnel have been deployed in areas north, west and south of Baghdad to try to prevent the firing of mortars and rockets into the capital, a security official said.

The official also said without providing figures that additional forces have also been deployed at checkpoints in the Iraqi capital, and that searches have been increased.

Violence in Iraq is down from its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common, with 126 people killed in April.