Sandstorm aids militants in Green Zone attack

BAGHDAD - Militants fired a salvo of rockets or mortars at the heavily guarded Green Zone in Baghdad on Sunday, while officials reported that Iraqi security forces had found more than 100 bodies in two mass graves.

The militants apparently were taking advantage of a sandstorm that blanketed the Iraqi capital Sunday and grounded U.S. helicopters and drones that normally track their activities.

Fifty bodies were found in a mass grave in central Iraq on Sunday, a military source in the area said, and another team said it had discovered more than 50 bodies in a grave south of Baghdad on April 17.

The grave found on Sunday was in the village of al-Guba, 50 miles north of Baghdad, in the troubled Diyala province, where al-Qaida Sunni Arab militants have regrouped after being driven out of other parts of the country.

Most of the bodies had their hands bound and gunshot wounds in the head. Some were decomposed, according to the military source, who declined to be named.

A senior security spokesman in Baghdad, Major-General Qassim Moussawi, said police and Iraqi military had uncovered 51 bodies in a grave on April 17 in Mahmudiya, a town 20 miles south of Baghdad.

He added that security forces had taken them to the morgue of a local hospital and some families had already identified the victims as their relatives.

Green Zone blasts
In Baghdad, at least eight rounds slammed into the Green Zone, which houses the Iraqi government and U.S. Embassy, said a police official who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Sirens could be heard from the area and loudspeakers warned residents to take cover. There was no immediate word on casualties or damage.

An Iraqi military spokesman said that over the past month, militants had fired a total of 712 missiles and mortar rounds inside Baghdad.

"They were all Iranian-made brought into Iraq in many ways," Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi told reporters. He did not elaborate on how the security forces had determined the origin of the exploded munitions.

The Green Zone has been regularly shelled since March, and two American soldiers were killed in the bombardment earlier this month.

Sadr City fighting
Sporadic clashes continued Sunday in the Mahdi Army stronghold of Sadr City, a sprawling district in northeastern Baghdad with 2.5 million people. Fighting in the district has been ongoing since Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki first launched his campaign a month ago against militias in the southern city of Basra.

Iraqi police said two people were killed and 12 injured in Sadr City in exchanges of fire between joint Iraqi-American forces and fighters of the Mahdi army.

Four of the injured in the clashes early Sunday were young children, said an officer who declined to identify himself because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The police officer said U.S. Apache helicopters were circling the area and providing support to the government forces.

But a U.S. military statement said an unmanned drone had killed a total of five militants using Hellfire missiles in three separate engagements.

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