BAGHDAD (AFP)
More than a dozen rockets slammed into Baghdad's Green Zone late on Sunday, witnesses said, as militiamen used the cover of a heavy sandstorm to hit the capital's heavily fortified nerve centre.
An interior ministry official said the Green Zone, where the Iraqi government and U.S. embassy are based, was hit by at least 10 rockets or mortar rounds while embassy staffers put the number at closer to 15.
AFP correspondents heard a barrage of four explosions near the Green Zone at around 9.25 pm (1825 GMT). A U.S. embassy staff member said at least one of those fell inside the fortified zone.
An earlier blast caused a fire inside the Green Zone but it was not immediately clear if any of the mortar bombs or rockets caused casualties or major damage.
Each wave of projectiles triggered alarms and sent U.S. embassy staff scurrying for cover, an embassy official said, adding that workers sheltered in the embassy building, a former palace of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
U.S. and Iraqi military commanders say around 700 rockets or mortar bombs have been fired from various locations in Baghdad in the past month, mainly from Sadr City, the east Baghdad bastion of the Mahdi Army militia of radical anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Of these, 114 have hit the Green Zone, killing two U.S. soldiers, two U.S. embassy personnel and two Iraqi guards.
Those firing the rockets are often identified by U.S. surveillance aircraft that alert helicopters which deploy Hellfire missiles against the attackers.
However, with the sandstorm reducing visibility, helicopters were unable to take off allowing the militiamen to escape after firing the deadly missiles.
General Abud Qanbar Hashim, Iraqi commander of Baghdad Operations Command, last week said 82 people had been killed and 476 wounded in rocket and mortar round fire in Baghdad since March 25, much of it coming from Sadr City.
Iraqi army spokesman Major General Qasim Atta told a news conference in Baghdad on Sunday that most of the rockets fired were Iranian-made.
"We have found many Iranian-made weapons -- Katyusha and Grad rockets, and smart roadside bombs and smart bombs. We have also seized some documents and identified some people," Atta said, without elaborating.
Clashes between militiamen and U.S.-Iraqi forces in Sadr City, which the American military says are aimed at preventing the rocket fire, have killed more than 400 people in the past month, according to an AFP tally based on reports by Iraqi and U.S. officials. |
