Rocket attack kills four in Baghdad's Green Zone

BAGHDAD, May 3 (Reuters) Four US government contractors, all from Asia, were killed in a rocket strike on the heavily fortified Green Zone compound in Baghdad yesterday, the US embassy said today.

It was one of the deadliest rocket attacks on the Green Zone since the US-led invasion in 2003.

''It is with a profound sense of sadness and regret that we announce the loss of four US government contractors as the result of a rocket attack on the International Zone in Baghdad, Iraq on May 2nd, 2007,'' the embassy said in a statement.

The embassy had initially identified those killed as all being from the Philippines. It said in a later statement revising their nationalities that one was from the Philippines, two were from India and the fourth was from Nepal.

Sunni Arab insurgent group the Islamic Army in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack. It said on its Web site the attack was an attempt to hit the US embassy with two rockets.

''Thanks God, the hit was precise and led to great casualties among occupation troops who were at this location,'' it said.

Mortar and rocket attacks by insurgents on the Green Zone are common and appear to have been stepped up in recent days.

Baghdad's most secure zone, it houses many Iraqi government ministries, parliament and the US embassy.

''We see varying sporadic patterns of the indirect fire against the international zone,'' US military spokesman Rear Admiral Mark Fox told a news conference yesterday.

''Sometimes we will go for weeks without anything and then there will be other periods where there is relatively frequent or intense activity.'' On April 12, one member of parliament was killed and two dozen other people were wounded by a suicide bomber in a parliament cafeteria, the Green Zone's worst breach of security.

An al Qaeda-linked group claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Casualties are still rare despite the frequency of rocket and mortar attacks, mainly because there are large open spaces in the Green Zone which also contains other diplomatic missions and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq.

''We know what the overall strategy is, and that's to try to score a spectacular hit,'' Fox said.

US and Iraqi forces launched in February a security crackdown in Baghdad regarded as a last-ditch attempt to drag Iraq back from the brink of sectarian civil war.

REUTERS SG VV1943