March 24, 2008	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 15, 1429

BAGHDAD, March 23: A wave of attacks across Iraq on Sunday killed 54 people, while armed men fighting occupation fired a barrage of mortars at Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, sending US embassy staff scurrying into bunkers.

The deadliest attack was in the main northern city of Mosul where a suicide bomber crashed an explosives-laden truck into an Iraqi army base, triggering a blast that killed 10 soldiers and wounded 30 other people, mostly soldiers, army officer Major Mohammed Ahmed said.

“The bomber smashed the truck through barriers at the entrance to the base and triggered the explosion” at around 7:00 am (0400 GMT), said Ahmed.

Iraqi and US troops are engaged in a major offensive against Al Qaeda in Mosul.

In a brutal attack in the south of Baghdad, armed men travelling in three cars opened fire on crowds in a local market in the mixed Zafaraniyah neighbourhood, killing seven people and wounding 16, security and medical officials said.

In another attack in the Iraqi capital, a Katyusha rocket struck a residential building in largely Shiite eastern Al-Kamaliyah neighbourhood, killing at least five people and wounding eight, security officials said.

A car bomb near a bus stop in Baghdad’s Al-Shuala neighbourhood killed five people and wounded eight others, security officials said.

Further north, a roadside bomb near the town of Al-Tuz, 75 kilometres south of Kirkuk, killed four Iraqi army personnel, a medic said.

Elsewhere, four people were killed in shootings, police said.The violence began with a barrage of mortar fire against Green Zone, the seat of the Iraqi government and the US embassy.

Two waves of mortar rounds struck the area between 6:30 am (0330 GMT) and 10:30 am. They caused no casualties but sent panicked US embassy staff scurrying into bunkers, officials and witnesses said.

Black smoke was seen rising from the Green Zone and US attack helicopters were seen circling above the complex, which once served as Saddam Hussein’s presidential compound.—AFP