About 11 mortar rounds exploded in central Baghdad on Sunday, including three that hit the heavily guarded Green Zone, killing at least six Iraqi civilians and wounding two, police said.

US and Iraqi soldiers crouch on a road during a street battle as insurgent gunfire echoes around them Saturday April 22, 2006 in Ramadi, 115 kilometers (70 miles) west of Baghdad, Iraq. US and Iraqi forces fought an hour-long gun battle with insurgents Saturday in Ramadi, firing automatic weapons from rooftops at small guerrilla teams maneuvering around them in alleyways and an abandoned fairground. US commanders said four insurgents were killed and two Iraqi soldiers wounded in the gunfight. [AP]

The Iraqis were just entering the Green Zone at about 8 a.m. after making their way through several heavily guarded checkpoints when three mortars exploded just inside it, said police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq.

Iraq's parliament meets inside the compound on the banks of the Tigris River, and it also is home to country's Defense Ministry and the U.S. and British embassies.

Other mortar rounds exploded around the same time on the other side of the river near Iraq's Interior Ministry and the Shaab sports stadium, and police were searching the areas to see if any damage or casualties resulted there, police said.

The explosions, which were heard across the city, came one day after Iraq's parliament elected a president, two vice presidents, a parliament speaker and two deputies. The breakthrough in a long political standoff now gives Jawad al-Maliki, the prime minister designate, 30 days to choose a Cabinet from divided Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties.