GREEN ZONE HAMMERED BY MORTARS

The cease-fire in Basra is holding with only sporadic fighting, but as has always been the case in Iraq the violence and turmoil just shifts to another target---this time it is again the Green Zone which has been bombarded Monday by mortars.

Green Zone hit by mortars
Attack is latest in series of assaults on fortified area housing U.S. embassy

Reuters
updated 4:44 a.m. CT, Mon., March. 31, 2008
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23875667/

BAGHDAD - A mortar barrage hit Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses Iraq's government and the U.S. embassy, police said, a day after Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his fighters to stand down.

The Green Zone has come under intense mortar and rocket attack over the past week as Mahdi Army fighters loyal to Sadr have battled Iraqi and U.S. security forces in the capital and in southern Iraq.

On Sunday al-Sadr ordered the Mahdi Army to stop fighting Iraqi security forces and to withdraw from the streets. But the cleric has previously acknowledged there are rogue elements within the militia that have disobeyed a truce he first called last year.

A siren wailed inside the U.S.-protected compound in central Baghdad and a recorded voice warned people to take cover amid the sound of explosions, Reuters witnesses said.

A dust storm enveloping the city made it difficult to see where the missiles were landing, but police said a volley of at least six mortars had hit the Green Zone. They had no details of any casualties.

A U.S. embassy spokesman was not immediately available for comment. The embassy has ordered staff in the zone to stay under cover where possible and wear body amour and helmets when in the open.