One American civilian and a person working for the Pentagon died inside central Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone in unrelated incidents, the US military said on Saturday. The body of a US citizen working for the US Department of Defence (DoD) was found dead in the Green Zone, while another of unidentified nationality was killed by a rocket attack on the Green Zone on Friday night, it said.
"A rocket landed inside the GZ, north of the embassy, around 8:15 pm yesterday. One DoD civilian was killed in the attack," Major Jose Lopez told AFP, adding that it could not confirm if the civilian was American. There were no further details about the American Pentagon employee who was found dead, as a criminal investigation was pending, Lopez said. It was not immediately known whether the dead people were male or female.
The report of the deaths came as Iraq has begun removing blast barriers in the Green Zone, which is home to Iraqi government offices and a number of foreign missions including the US embassy. Insurgents used to routinely launch attacks on the Green Zone but the last reported attack was in November, when a suicide bomber blew herself up in a corridor leading into the area, killing five people.