Gunmen fire on Iraq Health Ministry-officials

BAGHDAD, Nov 29 (Reuters) Gunmen opened fire on Iraq's Shi'ite-run Health Ministry building in central Baghdad today, for the second time in a week, officials in the building told Reuters as gunfire sounded in the background.

Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamily said two mortar rounds exploded nearby and gunmen continued to fire on the building as security forces attempted to repel them. He said the raid was much more limited than last Thursday's attack, when five people were wounded in hours of clashes at the ministry.

The shooting died down around midday when the gunmen appeared to withdraw, ministry spokesman Qasim Abdul Hadi said.

''They are attacking with light weapons and medium weapons,'' Hadi said earlier, adding that staff were pinned down by rifle and machinegun fire and feared snipers.

Health Minister Ali al-Shemari, from the movement of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, told Reuters he was not at the ministry but confirmed reports from his officials of the attack.

A source at Baghdad police headquarters said there had been a clash and that the assailants had been driven off.

Shortly after last week's attack, a multiple car bomb and mortar attack on Sadr City, stronghold of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia, killed more than 200 people in the bloodiest attack since the US invasion.

Health Ministry officials blamed militants from a nearby Sunni enclave in mainly Shi'ite east Baghdad for the previous attack on their headquarters.

REUTERS PDM VV1536