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Green Zone again under attack

BAGHDAD: A U.S. helicopter fired a Hellfire missile during fighting in a Shia militia stronghold of Baghdad on Friday, killing at least four persons as deadly clashes broke out in Iraq’s oil-rich south for the fourth day.

Defying a curfew in Baghdad, extremists also lobbed more rockets or mortars against the U.S.-protected Green Zone.

At least two rounds struck the nearby offices of Sunni Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi, killing two guards and wounding four, said his daughter Lubna.

Thick black smoke rose into the sky in the latest of a week of attacks that have prompted the U.S. State Department to order all personnel at the embassy to stay in reinforced structures.

Ground forces called for the airstrike in Sadr City after coming under small-arms fire while clearing a main supply route, said U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Stover.

He said four gunmen were killed, but Iraqi police and hospital officials said five civilians died and four others were wounded in the attack.

American jets also dropped bombs overnight in Basra in the first use of U.S. air power in the southern oil port since the Iraqi government launched a crackdown against Shia militias there earlier this week.

Maj. Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman in Basra, said the U.S. jets dropped bombs on a mortar team and a militia stronghold in Basra.

He did not have information about casualties.

The strikes came as tensions rose among followers of radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr angry over a crackdown that has threatened to unravel a militia cease-fire and spark a new cycle of violence after months of relative calm in Iraq.

The situation in Basra remained tense ahead of a Saturday deadline for gunmen to surrender their weapons and renounce violence. — AP

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