US and Iraqi forces on Wednesday arrested three people suspected of firing rockets at Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone soon after Vice President Joe Biden arrived to meet political leaders.
Biden had been in the Iraqi capital only a couple of hours on Tuesday when a barrage of rocket fire, which killed two people, rained down, triggering warning alarms at the sprawling US embassy grounds where some landed.
The US military said that Iraqi and American forces had arrested three people on suspicion of firing three 107mm rockets in what it described as "an indirect fire attack against US and Iraqi forces."
"Upon reaching the possible launch site, Iraqi and US troops received small arms fire from a house near the launch site," it said in a statement.
"As elements from the joint patrol manoeuvred against the small arms fire, a second group captured three Iraqi males and three rocket rails believed to have been used in the attack," it added.
An Iraqi security official, who said the attack comprised four mortar shells being fired into the Green Zone, told AFP that two Iraqis were killed and five wounded in the bombardment.
An AFP journalist on the scene at the time said two blasts were heard about 100 metres (yards) from the US embassy.
Iraqi insurgent group, the Mujahedeen Army, claimed responsibility for the barrage, boasting that it had fired rockets into the Green Zone as a "reception" for Biden.
It urged him to deliver a message to US President Barack Obama to withdraw US forces from Iraq, US-based SITE Intelligence Group reported, citing a statement posted on websites used by militants.
"The mujahedeen were able to shower the Green Zone and the occupation's headquarters in Baghdad Airport with six surface-to-surface rockets," the group said.
"They allege that mortars were fired, but we affirm that they were rockets as stated above.
"Oh leader of the occupiers, oh head of the infidels and hypocrites, saddle for your departure and pull out from our country," the group told Biden in the statement.
Biden, who was unharmed in the attack, on Wednesday met Iraqi parliament speaker Iyad al-Samarrai and Rafi al-Essawi, a Sunni deputy prime minister, a pool reporter said.
He also held talks with the nation's respective vice-presidents -- Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni, and Adel Abdel-Mahdi, a Shiite.
The US vice president was also holding talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and would later in the day issue a joint statement with him, a US embassy spokeswoman told AFP. He was also to meet American troops.
Biden was likewise expected to meet President Jalal Talabani and have talks with Massud Barzani, president of Iraq's Kurdish autonomous northern region. No further details were released for security reasons.
The US vice president on Tuesday had told reporters "he has a personal relationship and "has won a measure of trust" from Iraqi leaders, and said he was "here to listen."
Biden's trip is expected to end on Thursday.
Copyright 2009 AFP American Edition
