Green Zone mortar barrage kills 3 - Iraqi police

BAGHDAD, July 10 (Reuters) A big mortar and rocket attack on Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone compound today killed two Iraqis and a Filipino and wounded 25 other people, Iraqi police said.

Police said some 30 mortars and rockets were fired at the compound, which houses the Iraqi government along with the US and British embassies. It was one of the biggest barrages against the zone since the US-led invasion in 2003.

A US embassy spokesman said he was not aware of anyone getting killed, adding there had been around a dozen explosions inside the zone, which covers a large area of central Baghdad and is bounded on one side by the Tigris river.

Reuters reporters saw smoke rising in the vicinity of the US embassy just after the strike.

Police said many of the wounded were Iraqis. Contractors of numerous nationalities work inside the compound, often employed by security companies.

Mortar and rocket attacks on the Green Zone are common but militants have stepped up their strikes in the past few months.

The United Nations, in a recent report in which it complained about the mounting risks of operating in the Green Zone, said there were almost daily attacks and 26 people had been killed between mid February and late May.

US military commanders say many of the rockets and mortars recovered after these attacks had been made in neighbouring Shi'ite Iran.

They say many often appear to have been fired from Sadr City, a Baghdad stronghold of the Mehdi Army militia of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

REUTERS SBC VV2223