BAGHDAD, Oct. 14 -- Two powerful nearly simultaneous explosions in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone killed at least seven people and wounded five others Thursday morning, according to early reports. The U.S. military said the attackers were suicide bombers.

Separately, a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad killed a U.S. soldier, bringing the number of soldiers killed to 15 over the past eight days.

The Green Zone, where official U.S. and Iraqi offices are housed, is a regular target for insurgents using mortars, car bombs or roadside bombs.

Thursday morning's blasts were attributed to suicide bombers who were not in cars, however. There was no information on how the bombers got past checkpoints into the Green Zone.

Capt. Lennol Absher said there were two separate blasts, one at the Green Zone Cafe, where a bomb was found last week, and the other at an Iraqi bazaar selling rugs, DVDs and other assorted items.

He said the blasts were nearly simultaneous, sending plumes of black smoke into the air. The one near the market left a huge crater.

U.S. officials told wire services that all the victims were civilians but they would not specify nationalities.

In other developments, the military announced the death of a soldier and the wounding of two others Thursday morning when an "improvised explosive device" detonated in eastern Baghdad. No further details were provided.

Six soldiers died in action Tuesday and Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Reuters news agency reported that gunmen killed Iraqi woman journalist Dina Hassan outside her home in Baghdad on Thursday. "She was killed before eight o'clock this morning when she was heading to the office," Nawrouz Fatah, manager of Al Hurriya Television, told Reuters.

Al Hurriya is operated by one of Iraq's two main Kurdish political parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. An interior ministry spokesman said the journalist had been shot by car-borne gunmen in the Sunni Muslim Adhamiya district.

There was no word on the motive for the killing.

Barbash reported from Washington.