BAGHDAD, Nov 25: Loud blasts echoed across Baghdad after dark on Tuesday and loudspeakers at the headquarters of the US-led administration ordered personnel to take cover as an attack was under way.

“Attack. Take cover. This is not a test,” the loudspeaker announcements said, as sirens wailed at the compound in one of Saddam Hussein’s former palace complexes on the west bank of the Tigris river, in central Baghdad.

The compound has come under mortar and rocket fire several times this month, prompting intensified US military operations against guerilla targets in Baghdad.

Residents of a central Baghdad neighbourhood near the compound said at least two rockets had landed nearby. A large crater had been blown in the middle of one road, but there were no signs anybody had been wounded.—Reuters