"DUCK AND COVER" ALARM SOUNDED IN GREEN ZONE. 2 KILLED. 20 WOUNDED

Baghdad Green Zone blasted under cover of storm.

Iraqi police said eight missiles or mortars had hit the Green Zone and another 14 fell in other parts of the Iraqi capital, killing two people and wounding 20.


By Wisam Mohammed and Peter Graff
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080427/ts_nm/iraq_dc_2

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Militants bombarded Baghdad's Green Zone with rockets, taking advantage of the cover of a blinding dust storm to launch one of the heaviest strikes in weeks on the fortified compound.

The strikes appeared to defy a renewed call for a ceasefire issued on Friday by Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, which has seen many of his masked gunmen leave the streets of the Sadr City slum where they hold sway in eastern Baghdad.

Reuters correspondents heard the missiles whistling overhead and exploding inside the heavily fortified government and diplomatic compound on the west side of the Tigris River. Sirens wailed, ordering people to take cover.

"The Green Zone has received several rounds of IDF (indirect fire) but I can't say more than that," U.S. embassy spokesman Armand Cucciniello said. "The duck and cover alarm sounded and people ran out for cover."

Militiamen have fired 700 missiles and mortars over the past month, but U.S. forces had said they believed they had reduced the fighters' ability to strike the Green Zone by occupying the part of the Sadr City slum closest to it.