Baghdad Green Zone attacked during Biden visit

BAGHDAD — Four mortar shells landed in the Green Zone as Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Iraq Tuesday on a previously unannounced mission to help the country resolve its differences ahead of America's military withdrawal.

The shells were heard as they were fired from across the river on the east bank of the Tigris and at least one explosion was audible. There was no immediate word on any casualties or damage in the Green Zone or in any other areas of the capital.

The U.S. military said they had initial reports that "one round of indirect fire impacted near the International Zone, not in it." The International Zone is the official name for the Green Zone, the walled off area in the heart of Baghdad that is home to government offices, the U.S. and British embassies and parliament.

It was unclear where Biden was at the time of the attack. Warning sirens sounded in the protected zone shortly after the blast.

The trip is Biden's third this year and is a chance for him to meet with the full range of Iraqi leaders both in Baghdad's central government and those of Iraq's self-governing Kurdish region, whose boundaries with the rest of the country have become a volatile fault line.

Biden said after a meeting with Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill that he was in Iraq to help "resolve outstanding political issues" so that "when we leave we have a more stable Iraq."

The U.S. is to withdraw all combat forces by the end of August 2010 and fully withdraw the remaining 50,000 troops by the end of 2011. There are now about 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

Biden also is to meet with members of the United Nations mission in the country during the three-day visit, U.S. officials said.

Biden, who oversees Iraq policy for the Obama administration, made his last visit to the country on July 4 to spend the U.S. Independence Day with the troops. During that trip, he also met with his son, Beau, who is an Army captain serving in Iraq.

"I'm coming back to spend time with the Iraqi leadership with whom I might add I have been talking to on a basically weekly basis," Biden said.

Iraq's government hopes that on this visit the U.S. vice president will have suggestions on how to ease tension with Syria, which Iraq's prime minister has accused of harboring Saddam Hussein loyalists wanted in recent bombings that killed more than 100 people.