Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq     

    BAGHDAD, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Mortar attacks struck different areas in Baghdad on Thursday, while heavy gunfire resonated in western the capital, killing one civilian, an Interior Ministry source said.

    A mortar barrage hit the Ur neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad, killing a civilian and wounding two others, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    Two more mortar rounds landed on the Karrada neighborhood in central Baghdad, wounding a civilian, the source said.

    Four mortar rounds struck the area where the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad located, the source said, adding that no immediate casualties were reported.

    Xinhua correspondent at the scene saw one mortar round hit the street in front of the Iranian Embassy to Iraq just outside the Green Zone, which houses the Iraqi government offices and foreign embassies, including the U.S. one.

    Around midday, fierce clashes erupted between Mahdi Army militia, loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and Iraqi security forces in the Shiite neighborhood of Tobchi, the source said.

    The clashes broke out when gunmen from Mahdi Army attacked the Shiite mosque of al-Salam which affiliated to a rival Shiite faction in the neighborhood, prompting the guards of the mosque to fire back, he said.

    Sounds of explosions and machinegun rattled in the neighborhood as black smoke could be seen rising over the area.

    The attacks came as fierce clashes between Shiite Mahdi Army militiamen and the U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces spread in several Iraqi cities, including Baghdad, which led to hundreds of Iraqi casualties.