AFP: Insurgents on Tuesday slammed at least four rockets into the heavily-fortified Baghdad Green Zone, the seat of the Iraqi government and the US embassy, Iraqi and US officials said. BAGHDAD (AFP) Insurgents on Tuesday slammed at least four rockets into the heavily-fortified Baghdad Green Zone, the seat of the Iraqi government and the US embassy, Iraqi and US officials said.
At least four Katyusha rockets struck the Green Zone, an Iraqi security official said.
The latest assault comes just two days after insurgents fired four waves of rockets and mortars into the area, which once served as Saddam Hussein’s presidential compound, injuring six people and damaging buildings.
US embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo confirmed the attack and said there were “no deaths or major injuries.”
Two rockets hit the fence of the Ibn Sinha hospital, another fell near a building that houses Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s security company and the fourth fell near the office of Blackwater USA, the private security company employed to protect US embassy personnel, a witness told AFP.
The US military claims that most mortar rounds or rockets that hit the area are fired by “rogue” elements of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia.
The top US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, blamed neighbouring Iran for the weekend attacks, saying they were “Iranian-provided, Iranian-made rockets”.
He added in an interview with the BBC that Iran’s actions were “in complete violation of promises made by President (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad and the other most senior Iranian leaders to their Iraqi counterparts.”
