Green Zone mortared - source

[sabra]

Source: Voice of Iraq

Baghdad, Mar 25, (VOI) – Three projectiles hit the Green Zone in Baghdad on Tuesday, police sources and eyewitnesses said.

"Three explosions were clearly heard inside the Green Zone on Tuesday afternoon," a security source said to Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI) on condition of anonymity.

The source could not confirm whether the attacks were carried out using mortar shells or Katyusha rockets.

He was also unable to verify if there were any resulting casualties.

Eyewitnesses told VOI, "The sound from the explosions was very loud, and smoke columns appeared at the attacked locations."

Read more: http://www.aswataliraq.info/look/english/article.tpl?Id...

[Lasher]

1. on condition of anonymity

could not confirm

unable to verify

Have you ever wondered if the reduction of reported casualties might be due more to decreased reporting more than anything else?

[mallard]

6. Yeah, where's the story in the US Press

Have they got to scew on it awhile first - and I mean GOT TO?

[Maeve]

8. see post #4 for Yahoo link eom

[wordpix]

11. shortage of journalists willing to go to Iraq due to danger; ditto for soldiers

[acmavm]

2. Petraus says this shit is the Iranians fault. Somehow I suspect

that the Iraqis could be smart enough and pissed off enough to be doing this on their own.

[sabra]

3. IMO - it's the Mehdi militia showing us who really controls the "surge"

[bdamomma]

5. of course its the Iraqis they want us gone!!

[Amonester]

9. or Betrayus has been given the green light for

starting world war 3 by his masters chainy/bu$h/rumsferatu to
make sure the next dem prez will be stuck in their quagmire 3
you know, like covert ops in the military could never use any
mortar themselves (and make sure nobody's "hit" in there), as
operation "new gulf of tonkin" (pnac version), next new moon.

[Barrett808]

4. Baghdad Green Zone hit by rockets (Tuesday)

Source: AFP

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Insurgents on Tuesday slammed at least four rockets into the heavily-fortified Baghdad Green Zone, the seat of the Iraqi government and the US embassy, Iraqi and US officials said.

At least four Katyusha rockets struck the Green Zone, an Iraqi security official said.

The latest assault comes just two days after insurgents fired four waves of rockets and mortars into the area, which once served as Saddam Hussein's presidential compound, injuring six people and damaging buildings.

US embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo confirmed the attack and said there were "no deaths or major injuries."

Two rockets hit the fence of the Ibn Sinha hospital, another fell near a building that houses Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's security company and the fourth fell near the office of Blackwater USA, the private security company employed to protect US embassy personnel, a witness told AFP.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080325/wl_mideast_afp/ira...

[Supersedeas]

10. more news from Iraq that the GoP Media Establishment can ignore

[wordpix]

12. but---the surge is a great success, everyone! Ignore this report like the others!

[Barrett808]

7. k & r

[maddezmom]

13. Shiites unleash rockets in Baghdad

Shiites unleash rockets in Baghdad By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer
23 minutes ago



BAGHDAD - Iraq's leaders faced their gravest challenge in months Tuesday as Shiite militiamen loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr battled for control of the southern oil capital and unleashed rockets on the U.S.-protected Green Zone in Baghdad.

Armed Mahdi Army militiamen appeared on some Baghdad streets for the first time in more than six months, as al-Sadr's followers announced a nationwide campaign of strikes and demonstrations to protest a government crackdown on their movement. Merchants shuttered their shops in commercial districts in several Baghdad neighborhoods.

Although all sides appeared reluctant to trigger a conflagration, Brig. Gen. Ed Cardon, assistant commander of the U.S. task force operating south of Baghdad, said the situation in the south was "very complicated" and "the potential for miscalculation is high."

The burgeoning crisis — part of an intense power struggle among Shiite political factions — has major implications for the United States. An escalation could unravel the cease-fire which al-Sadr proclaimed last August. A resumption of fighting by his militia could kill more U.S. soldiers and threaten — at least in the short run — the security gains Washington has hailed as a sign that Iraq is on the road to recovery.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080325/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq ;_ylt=Arke5p3cpQ07F5P6KKKc5bVvaA8F

[sabra]

14. "the potential for miscalculation is high."

[wordpix]

15. uh---which "freedom fighters" are we fighting for? Is it al-Sadr's, Maliki's or?

Of course, we really know who we're fighting for: BigOil and their BigOil profits.

[Festivito]

16. SOMEONE DID DIE. Won't be counted I bet. 4000+ it is.

BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S. Embassy says a man wounded in an Easter Day rocket attack on the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad has died.

The death of 56-year-old Paul Converse was confirmed Tuesday by the embassy in Baghdad and by his parents in Oregon.

His parents said Converse was a financial analyst for the U.S. government. He had worked in Iraq for most of the war.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jdesPYYZPZt3GCC_wb0v...