A mortar barrage hit Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses Iraq's government and the U.S. embassy, police said, a day after Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his fighters to stand down.The Green Zone has come under intense mortar and rocket attack over the past week as Mahdi Army fighters loyal to Sadr have battled Iraqi and U.S. security forces in the capital and in southern Iraq.
On Sunday al-Sadr ordered the Mahdi Army to stop fighting Iraqi security forces and to withdraw from the streets. But the cleric has previously acknowledged there are rogue elements within the militia that have disobeyed a truce he first called last year.
A siren wailed inside the U.S.-protected compound in central Baghdad and a recorded voice warned people to take cover amid the sound of explosions, Reuters witnesses said.
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