Seven Iraqi soldiers were wounded Wednesday when three shells hit the fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, one of which landed in front of parliament shortly after its first session in two months due to the political crisis in the country.
The seven victims had various injuries, the Iraqi security apparatus' press office said in a statement.
One of the shells landed near the checkpoint where the wounded soldiers were being held, according to the spokesman for the Iraqi armed forces commander-in-chief, Yahya Rasul, who did not specify the nature of the weaponry used in the attack.
The attack, for which the authorities have not yet provided any information, took place shortly after the end of the first legislative session in the parliament in the Green Zone since it was blocked for a month by the followers of the popular cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Sadrists occupied the legislature for a week in late July and early August and then camped outside it until late last month in protest to prevent a vote on a prime ministerial candidate from the pro-Iranian party bloc.
After the protesters withdrew, the legislature had not reconvened amid a serious crisis over political paralysis, which has prevented the appointment of a new president and head of government since last October's elections.
Rocket fire on the Green Zone, which encompasses the main state institutions, had been common over the past three years, usually attributed to pro-Iranian militias opposed to the presence of US soldiers in Iraq, but had subsided in recent months.
