LA Times : Shelling in Green Zone kills 3

Shelling in Green Zone kills 3

A U.S. service member is among the dead in Baghdad's fortified region. Iraqi Cabinet pledges aid to a bomb-ravaged town.

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Times Staff Writer | July 11, 2007

BAGHDAD — At least 20 mortar rounds and Katyusha rockets struck the fortified Green Zone on Tuesday afternoon, killing an American service member and two other people in an attack on the heart of U.S. and Iraqi government facilities in the capital.

Those killed included an Iraqi and a person whose nationality was unknown, according to a statement released by the U.S. Embassy. About 18 people were injured, including two U.S. military personnel and three American contract employees, the statement said.

Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf, a spokesman for Iraq's Interior Ministry, said 20 mortar shells and rockets had struck; another source in the ministry put the number of blasts at more than 30.

The Green Zone, also known as the International Zone, is home to the U.S. and British embassies, Iraqi parliament and other foreign and Iraqi government offices. It covers about 4 square miles in central Baghdad on the west bank of the Tigris River.

Iraqi police said Tuesday's attack, the most intense in recent months, targeted the embassy, Ibn Sina Hospital and the homes of Iraqi officials.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman said he could not confirm whether the embassy was a target, and that the frequent attacks on the Green Zone are not a barometer of the security situation in the capital.

"There's fire into the Green Zone virtually every day, so I can't draw any conclusions about the security situation based on that," he said.

United Nations staffers have temporarily moved to a different compound within the Green Zone and are calling for construction of a building capable of withstanding the stepped-up assaults. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon experienced an attack firsthand during a televised visit to the Green Zone in March and appeared shaken by the explosion.

U.N. and U.S. military leaders acknowledged last month that militants were increasingly targeting the area. There were about 39 attacks in May, compared with 17 in March, according to a U.N. report. In addition to mortar and rocket attacks, the Green Zone was shaken April 12 by a suicide bombing in the Iraqi parliament building that killed a Sunni Arab legislator.

Tuesday's attack came the same day gunmen kidnapped Iraqi Police Col. Mahmoud Muhyi Hussein, who directs security inside the Green Zone, as he was driving in the central Baghdad neighborhood of Jadriya. There was no word on his fate late in the day.

Also on Tuesday, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's Cabinet announced plans to spend $10 million on recovery efforts in the northern town of Amerli, where a massive suicide bomb Sunday killed as many as 150 people and wounded at least 250.

The money will go to victims' families, compensate business owners and help rebuild the area, the Cabinet announced.

Maliki's Cabinet also ordered the government to secure the highway that runs north from Baghdad through Amerli to Kirkuk, and to pursue militants who have fled into Salahuddin province, which includes Amerli. The Cabinet plans to form an emergency administrative unit to respond to future large-scale attacks, the statement said.

At least 17 people died in explosions and shootings across Iraq on Tuesday.

In the northern city of Samarra, five Iraqi soldiers were killed and three injured after about 60 gunmen in more than 20 cars attacked a checkpoint at 8 a.m.

Three Iraqi police were killed and one injured as they drove to work in the northern city of Tikrit, shot by gunmen on the highway between the northern towns of Yathreb and Balad.

In Baghdad, a suicide car bomb exploded at an Iraqi commando checkpoint in the southern neighborhood of Sadiya, killing a commando and injuring eight people. And police in the capital recovered 23 bodies.

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molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

Times staff writers Saif Hameed, Said Rifai, Wail Alhafith and Raheem Salman and special correspondents in Baghdad, Kirkuk and Samarra contributed to this report.