AlQuds alArabi confirms the GreenZone exodus story

AlQuds alArabi says in its top story today (Wednesday April 2):

Reliable sources in the Green Zone said a large number of authorities have departed from the area, since it has been exposed to a large number of attacks, including deaths and injuries to a number of Americans and Iraqis, and the sources say the attacks are being carried out in a very accurate way, and this means that those carrying out the attacks, mostly armed Shiite groups, are in possession of precise details and maps of the Green Zone area.

The Green Zone has been exposed during the recent period of six days of fighting in Iraq, to a heavy downpour of rocket and mortar attacks during this whole period of days, with frequent warning sirens and American soldiers and employees take refuge in shelters during the attacks, which last a considerable period of time. The sources said some of the attacks include up to 10 shells consecutively in a single attack, causing terror among the Americans and the Iraqi employees, without the government or the American forces being able to do anything to stop it. And this has led many of the American and Iraqi authorities to leave the Green Zone, the Americans going to the Baghdad Airport, where there is a huge American base, and the Iraqis going to other locations, or to the north of Iraq, where there is a secure and stable atmosphere.

(The lead-in to this story is a call by an Iraqi parliamentarian for president Talibani to return to the Green Zone to deal with the current national crisis, instead of staying in the Kurdish north).

The AlQuds AlArabi reporter adds that a senior Iraqi security person said they have the name and picture of the ringleader of the group shelling and rocketing the GreenZone, they know he was trained in Iraq, how many people are working with him, that he uses a lot of cars for mobility, and so on (suggesting they have not been asleep at the switch).