US paratroopers foil Iraq Green Zone bombardment

BAGHDAD (AFP) - US helicopter gunships and a squad of paratroopers foiled an attempt to fire a volley of rockets at Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, killing four militants and arresting six, the military said on Sunday.

Lieutenant Colonel Scott Bleichwehl, spokesman for US forces in Baghdad, said that late on Saturday choppers had fired on a gang setting up 12 rocket launchers south of Sadr City, stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia.

"Two of the terrorist rockets exploded as they were strafed by the US helicopters. None of the other rockets fired," he said.

"Reports indicate four terrorists were killed and one wounded in this engagement. The rest of the terrorists fled the scene in multiple vehicles."

US soldiers followed the surviving militants into Sadr City, an east Baghdad slum and a bastion of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's militia, where paratroopers raided a house and arrested six suspects, he added.

Sunday's operation followed the seizure two days earlier of a small arsenal of rockets that US commanders believe were to be aimed at the Green Zone, a walled city district that houses the US mission and the Iraqi government.