UN workers killed in Baghdad attack

Baghdad: A rocket struck near a UN compound in the heavily fortified Green Zone on Saturday, killing three foreigners and wounding 14, according to UN and military officials.

The attack came as Private US military companies working in Baghdad began vacating their positions, retreating into the heavily fortified Green Zone after the Iraqi parliament ratified a security pact with the US which requires the withdrawal of US military units from major Iraqi cities by mid 2009. Preparations are underway to begin implementation of this article by the beginning of next year.

"Dyncorp has already begun evacuating the palace of one of the officials of the former regime and it will be handed over to the Iraqi government, which makes it the first takeover implemented as a part of the security agreement with the US," a senior official at the Baghdad Operations Command, told Gulf News.

The victims were working for a catering company that provides services for the United Nations but their nationalities weren't being released pending notification of relatives, a UN official said.

Limited

The UN presence in Iraq has been limited since the organisation's Baghdad headquarters was bombed on August 19, 2003, killing 22 people.

A US military spokesman, said explosives ordnance teams had determined Iranian-made rockets were used in the Green Zone attack as well as another strike late on Friday against Camp Victory, the main military headquarters on the western outskirts of the Iraqi capital.

The US military accuses Iran of providing weapons, funding and training to Shiite fighters that oppose the US presence in Iraq.

Rocket and mortar attacks against the Green Zone and other US targets, which have been common throughout the Iraq conflict, spiked this spring during clashes with fighters loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr. But they tapered off after Al Sadr declared a ceasefire.

Yesterday's strike was the first in more than a month against the Green Zone, an area in central Baghdad that also houses the US embassy and the Iraqi government headquarters.

"The Al Maliki government is trying to encourage Iraqi security companies to become licensed and operational quickly so they will be able to assume the protection of diplomatic missions and important sites," Major General Adnan Thabet, a security advisor to the Iraqi Interior Minister, told Gulf News.

- With inputs from AP