Green Zone shelled 5 years after Baghdad fell

[unhappycamper]

Green Zone shelled 5 years after Baghdad fell
By Sameer N. Yacoub - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Apr 9, 2008 9:08:14 EDT

BAGHDAD — Baghdad’s Green Zone, which houses diplomatic missions and much of Iraq’s government, also came under renewed attack by rockets or mortars early Wednesday, the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.

The U.S. Embassy confirmed the shelling but said there were no immediate reports of casualties.

The bloodshed served as stark reminders of Iraq’s continuing instability five years after U.S. troops swept into Baghdad and toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime April 9, 2003. The euphoria of victory soon dissipated — pummeled first by a Sunni insurgency, then Sunni-Shiite slaughter and now battles against Shiite militiamen.

Meanwhile, 16 people died in Baghdad’s Sadr City as clashes between security forces and Shiite militiamen. Police said the seven of the victims, including three children, died when projectiles slammed into a house in the sprawling slum, a stronghold of the Mahdi army militia of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

In another incident, a mortar shell crashed into a nearby residential area in the district around noon, killing seven people and wounding 36 others, police and hospital officials said.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/04/ap_baghdad_040908/