Rockets hit Iraq Green Zone

Rockets were fired at Baghdad's Green Zone Saturday after Iraq's most violent protest in years saw seven people killed in clashes between police and demonstrators advancing on the fortified area.

The body coordinating security operations in Iraq said several Katyusha-type rockets were fired from within Baghdad at the Green Zone, which houses most of the country's key institutions.

"Several Katyusha rockets fired from the Baladiyat and Palestine Street areas landed in the Green Zone," the Joint Operations Command said in a statement, without specifying who fired them. There was no reported causalities.

The Green Zone is a vast area in central Baghdad that houses the prime minister's office, the presidency, parliament and several major embassies, including the huge US mission.

It could not be ascertained that both events were linked. The protest, the latest in a series across the country over the past few days, was focused on demands for electoral reform ahead of provincial polls slated for September.

The rally, mostly attended by supporters of cleric Moqtada Sadr, started peacefully but some protesters subsequently broke away and attempted to force their way past a police cordon to reach the Green Zone.

"There were seven dead as a result of the violence. Two of them are from the security forces and the other five are protesters," a police colonel told AFP on condition of anonymity. He said more than 200 were hurt in the chaos.

Saturday's demonstrators received a de facto green light to escalate their protest in the shape of a statement from the Najaf-based Sadr.

"If you want to approach the gates of the Green Zone to affirm your demands and make them heard to those on the other side of the fence... you can," he said.

Sadr, a mercurial Shiite who once led a rebellion against US occupation but has more recently spearheaded an anti-corruption protest movement, eventually called for restraint but warned Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi not to turn a deaf ear.

Abadi said the violence would be investigated and those responsible for it prosecuted.