Several mortar bombs land in Baghdad's Green Zone

BAGHDAD, June 14 (Reuters) Several mortar rounds landed inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone today as the city remained under curfew after the bombing of a revered Shi'ite mosque north of the city a day earlier, witnesses said.

Puffs of white smoke could be seen rising from the centre of the zone near Iraq's parliament building, convention centre and the US military's media unit.

The zone is home to several government ministries and the US and British embassies.

A British embassy spokeswoman would not comment on the strikes.

Most areas of the capital were largely empty after a three-day curfew was imposed after bombs toppled the golden minarets of the Shi'ite al-Askari mosque in Samarra yesterday.

The Green Zone is Baghdad's most secure zone but often comes under rocket and mortar attack by insurgents in other parts of the city, although attacks have lately become more frequent and more accurate.

Many land harmlessly in the large expanses of open space but there was a spate of casualties in April and May.

On April 12, a suicide bomber killed one lawmaker in the parliament building in the worst breach of security in the Green Zone since the March 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

REUTERS SV KN1707