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Green Zone pounded by mortar rounds

A series of rockets or mortars were fired toward the US-protected Green Zone early yesterday, a day after Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army militia fighters to cease attacks for another six months.

About 10 blasts were heard in the sprawling area in central Baghdad starting about 6:15am and the US public address system there warned people to "duck and cover" and to stay away from windows.

Major Brad Leighton, a US military spokesman, confirmed the Green Zone was hit by indirect fire, its term for a rocket or mortar attack but could not immediately provide more details.

The 10km2 area on the west bank of the Tigris River houses the US and British embassies, the Iraqi government headquarters and thousands of US troops on the west bank of the Tigris River.

It has been frequently struck by rockets and mortar rounds, but the attacks have tapered off amid stepped up security measures and a lull of violence in the capital and surrounding areas.

Often, the rounds landed in open fields -- part of a system of parks that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein built when the area served as the headquarters of his regime.

But they have proven deadly. On July 10, militants unleashed a barrage of more than a dozen mortars or rockets into the Green Zone, killing at least three people -- including an American -- and wounding 18.

The US military blamed Iranian-backed Shiite militias for a series of deadly rocket attacks in Baghdad last week, including one against US outposts in Baghdad that wounded three US soldiers.

Another struck Camp Victory, the main US military headquarters and an Iraqi housing complex on the capital's southwestern outskirts on Monday, killing at least five people and wounding 16, including two US soldiers.

The military said the militants were among factions that have broke with al-Sadr and refused to follow his ceasefire order.

Al-Sadr announced on Friday that he had extended the six-month order through the middle of August and the US military welcomed the announcement.

The ceasefire, along with an increase in US troop levels and a move by US-backed Sunni fighters to turn against their former al-Qaeda in Iraq allies, has been credited with reducing war deaths among Iraqis by about 70 percent in six months, figures compiled by AP showed.

INCURSION

Meanwhile, Turkish troops continued yesterday their ground offensive against Kurdish rebels holed up in northern Iraq in an operation that has already claimed the lives of dozens of rebels.

Iraq has protested the operation, Turkey's second incursion into its southern neighbor in three months, and the UN and Western powers have called for restraint.

The Turkish army's general staff said on Friday in a statement on its Internet site at least 24 rebels and five of its soldiers had been killed in clashes.

Around 20 militants had been killed by artillery and helicopter fire, it said, adding that the exact toll would be determined once troops had reached the targeted area.

"It has been understood from preliminary information that the `terrorists' have suffered heavy losses under long-range weapons fire and air strikes," it said, adding that a number of rebels were wounded in the continued fighting.

Turkish soldiers poured into the mountainous, snow-bound Kurdish region of northern Iraq on Thursday after eight hours of air and artillery strikes on camps of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) there.
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