Report: Mortar rounds fired on Echo base in Diwaniya

Soldiers with Troop A, Task Force 1st Battalion, 14th Cavalry Regiment provide security with the 8th Iraqi Army Division troops at the start of Operation Black Eagle in Diwaniyah

Diwaniya, Apr 13, (VOI)- The Multi-National Forces' Echo base was mortared while Iraqi and U.S. continued a search campaign in Diwaniya, 180 km south of Baghdad, a security source said on Friday.

"20 mortar rounds were fired Friday at dawn onto Echo base in southern Diwaniya," the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

The source added "U.S. choppers flew over the city after the attack to locate the attackers."

No comment so far has been made by the Multi-National Forces on the incident.

Meanwhile, Iraqi and U.S. forces continued raids in different neighborhoods in Diwaniya city under the security crackdown "Black Eagle".

Last week, fierce clashes broke out between Iraqi troops, backed by U.S. forces, and fighters loyal to the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Diwaniya.
The security forces also detained scores of al-Sadr's Mahdi army fighters who were described as "wanted for security reasons."

Diwaniya, capital city of the Shiite predominantly al-Qadissiyah province, is 180 km south of Baghdad.

From VOI

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