Baghdad’s Green Zone is red-hot Shiite target

Movements restricted
"All personnel are required to wear body armor, helmet and protective eye wear any time they are outside of building structures in the International Zone," said U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo, using the official name of the area. "Beyond that, we don't discuss our security posture."

Another U.S. official said that personnel — who usually sleep two to a trailer on the embassy grounds — are now sleeping inside the former Saddam palace where their offices are located.

"There are cots everywhere," the U.S. official said. "People are scouting out free couches."

The official — who has been through other attacks — described the recent barrages as "qualitatively different."

"There is a sense of hunkering down for a sustained period of time," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security restrictions.

The Green Zone is normally a five-square-mile haven from the war, particularly in recent months as overall violence in Baghdad has dropped. But it is now caught in the widening attacks by forces loyal to al-Sadr to protest a crackdown by the Iraqi government.

The last sustained attacks on the Green Zone were in July when extremists unleashed a barrage of more than a dozen mortars or rockets, killing at least three people — including an American — and wounding 18.

Renewed concerns
Security forces know where the firing is from: mainly Shiite districts in eastern Baghdad. The challenge is how to stop them.

The attacks come from deep inside residential neighborhoods, making it difficult to counterattack without risking widespread civilian casualties. Also, the rockets and mortars are fired from mobile launchers, meaning militants can speedily move away from the launch area before soldiers can respond.

Last May, an explosion from a rocket rattled windows in the U.S. Embassy while Vice President Dick Cheney was visiting. In the same month, a blast hit the British Embassy compound when then Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived.

In March, a rocket or mortar round landed near Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office while he and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon were holding a news conference. Ban ducked behind a podium as small chips of debris floated down from the ceiling.

Attacks against the zone have also renewed concern about security at the new U.S. Embassy, which is due to open this year within a protected area along the Tigris. The embassy will be Washington's largest and most expensive foreign mission.

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