Mortars rattle nerves in U.S. haven in Iraq

BAGHDAD - Rusty Barber was sitting at his desk in a comfortable if spartan office inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone when the first explosion sounded, close enough to rattle the building and his nerves. He got up from his chair, directly in front of a window, and hurried to the building's more protected central corridor. Then the second mortar shell struck.

The round severed a palm tree just outside Barber's office, spraying shrapnel across the side of the building, splintering Barber's window, and peppering the room with bullet-size pieces of razor-sharp metal. One traveled through a wooden closet and destroyed a porcelain sink; one embedded itself in the small refrigerator; one ricocheted off his desk; another struck his computer monitor.

"It was a sobering event," said Barber, 42, head of the local office of the U.S. Institute of Peace. In all, about 10 mortar rounds struck parts of the Green Zone that day in mid-May, killing two Iraqis and wounding 10 other people. Ten cars were damaged or destroyed in the barrage at Barber's complex, a short walk from the U.S. Embassy.

"You accept a level of risk when you come over here, but no one expects a direct encounter with shrapnel like this," Barber said, carefully fingering a jagged, inch-long piece of metal retrieved from the refrigerator.

Mortar and rocket attacks on the Green Zone are nothing new, but people who live and work in the complex - a walled compound of about five square miles on the banks of the Tigris River that is headquarters to the Iraqi government and U.S. forces - say the strikes are becoming more frequent, accurate and deadly.

Despite the rising casualty toll from the attacks - eight people have been killed, including two U.S. soldiers, and about 25 injured in dozens of attacks since late March - the bigger problem is the psychological impact of insurgents' striking the symbolic heart of the United States here, Iraqis and Americans say.

That view is strengthened by the sense, correct or not, that the Green Zone was a relatively secure oasis where the war didn't seep in.

"It's amazing to people in the red zone, who think that if it can happen in the Green Zone, it can happen anywhere, and what's going to happen next?" said an Iraqi computer technician, 27, who spoke on condition his name not be used, fearing that he and his family could be targeted. Like many Iraqis, he works in the Green Zone but lives outside it, an area some now call the red zone.

Antigovernment satellite television channels broadcast insurgent statements claiming they can strike the Green Zone with impunity, he said, which scares Iraqis because "the mortars are coming from the same place every day, and no one is doing anything about it."

"Stuff like that gets to people" more than fear of the bombs themselves, the technician said. "For Iraqis, we're used to it. For Americans, they're a little afraid because they haven't seen it before."

U.S. officials say they place a premium on "force protection," but they refuse to detail how they are combating the mortar and rocket problem, saying such information could help the attackers.

But an indication of the measures being taken came on a recent Saturday, when U.S. Apache helicopters fired on insurgents preparing to fire rockets at the Green Zone from the east, near the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City. Four insurgents were killed, and 10 rockets and a van were destroyed in the attack, the U.S. military claimed. It said six insurgents were traced to a residence in Sadr City, where they were apprehended.

U.S. military officials say the Green Zone attacks also come from Sunni areas in southern Baghdad.

"It's more of a psychological terror weapon because they're firing at the seat of government, the U.S. headquarters and various embassies," said a senior U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk publicly about the attacks.

The actual danger was slight, he asserted: "Compared to being in the Green Zone, driving in [Washington] Beltway traffic scares the hell out of me."