 BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: An official security spokesman denied on Friday that the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in central Baghdad's heavily-fortified green zone was on fire.
"News reports carried by a TV channel that fire broke out in the office of Maliki, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi armed forces, in the green zone were groundless," Maj. General Qassem Atta, the official spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command (BOC), told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.| Lit cigarette in the waste basket, most likely. That's a real risk in a society that isn't ashamed to smoke. |
Atta urged the mass media to "observe accuracy and caution when reporting news and verify them from their direct sources". |