Mortars hit Baghdad's Green Zone, no one killed -US

BAGHDAD, July 10 (Reuters) A number of mortars struck the Green Zone in Baghdad today, a US embassy spokesman said, adding that no one had been killed in the attack.

Reuters reporters saw smoke rising in the vicinity of the US embassy after the strike on the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the Iraqi government and parliament and many other foreign embassies.

The US spokesman said there had been around a dozen explosions inside the Green Zone, which covers a large area of central Baghdad and is bounded on one side by the Tigris river.

He said that there had been no fatalities, but had no information on whether anyone had been wounded in the strike.

Mortar and rocket attacks on the Green Zone are common but it is often hard to establish if anyone has been hurt.

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

US military commanders say many of the rockets and mortars recovered after these attacks had been made in Iran and often appear to have been fired from Sadr City, a stronghold of firebrand Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in east Baghdad.

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