Two killed in attack on Baghdad's Green Zone - US

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

BAGHDAD, May 16 (Reuters) - Two Iraqis were killed and ten other people wounded when ten mortar rounds slammed into the heavily fortified Green Zone compound in central Baghdad today, a US embassy spokesman said.

Few details were available about those killed in the second attack on the zone in two days, but none of the casualties were embassy employees or contractors, the spokesman said.

Of the ten injured, eight were identified as Iraqis. The nationality of the remaining two was not clear but they were neither Americans nor Iraqis.

Insurgents have recently stepped up mortar and rocket attacks on the zone, which houses parliament, many government ministries, the U.S. embassy and other foreign missions.

Five US embassy contract workers were hurt yesterday when at least one round landed in the zone. Earlier this month, four US government contractors, all from Asia, were killed in a rocket strike.

Sunni Arab insurgents fighting US forces in Iraq have claimed responsibility for mortar attacks on the Green Zone, which housed Saddam Hussein's main presidential palace until he was toppled in a US invasion in 2003.

Casualties are still relatively rare despite the frequency of such attacks, mainly because there are large open spaces in the zone.

REUTERS BDP KN2155

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