Two Blasts Targeting U.S. HQs Rock Baghdad

They said the sound of the explosions, that took place at 03:00 AM (00 GMT) came from the so-called "Green Zone," comprising the U.S. army headquarters and were caused from either Katusha missiles or mortar shells used in similar attacks on the area over the past few days.

No statement was issued on the raids by the U.S. forces spokesman till 08:30 AM local time (05:30 GMT).

The "Green Zone" had come under Katusha rockets and mortar shells for 4 times over the past two weeks, killing and wounding an unspecified number of U.S. soldiers, according to eyewitnesses and U.S. occupation forces statements.

The eyewitnesses said the U.S. helicopter gunships flew over the Green Zone and the nearby southern Baghdad Daura district, on the opposite side of River Tigris where the Zone existed.

‘Saddam’

Meanwhile, an Iraqi newspaper claimed on Thursday that Iraq’s deposed President Saddam Hussein himself had executed an Iraqi judge at the holy city of Nejaf in a desert near the city on Tuesday, November 4.

Al-Yum Al-Akhar daily quoted its "special correspondent," who it said "was in Nejaf when Judge Mohan Jabur Al-Sheweily was executed by Saddam and a number of his counterparts in the Nejaf desert, following Sheweily’s abduction."

"Saddam himself killed Judge Sheweily after he said he had executed the ‘people’s decision,’ following the Judge’s decision to arrest a number of former ruling Baath Party in Nejaf," the newspaper quoted its "secret reporter" as saying.

Sheweily, Chief of an investigation committee trying former Baath Party officials in Nejaf and the city’s Public Attorney, Arif Aziz, were abducted on Tuesday by 3 armed men.

Judge Sheweily was killed and Attorney General Aziz was released by his abductors, according to Iraqi press reports.

Former President Saddam Hussein and 54 of his leading officials are on a list made public by the U.S. authorities, and a number of them, including Saddam’s two sons Uday and Qusay were killed by the U.S. forces since Iraq’s occupation in April 2003.

Apart from Judge Sheweily, two other judges were killed at the northern Iraqi cities of Mosul and Kirkuk over the past few days, following threats by underground armed groups to assassinate any Iraqi judge who orders the arrest of tries former Baath party officials.