Iraq Shi'ite party says no mortar hit headquarters

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A senior official at the Baghdad headquarters of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council on Monday denied that a missile or mortar struck the compound.

The Council is the biggest Shi'ite group in the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Earlier, a party official said a rocket struck the compound in the central Karrada neighbourhood, hurting no one. But Haitham al-Husseini, an adviser to the Council's leader, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, said no missile or mortar had hit the party's headquarters.

He told Reuters there had been a mortar strike in the area, but that nothing landed near the Council.

The Council is a main rival of the movement of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Sadr's Mehdi Army fighters have launched missile and mortar strikes across Baghdad since Maliki ordered a crackdown on them a month ago.

Many of those missiles and mortar bombs have struck the Green Zone fortified government and diplomatic compound on the west bank of the Tigris river. The Council's office is on the opposite side of the bank.

(Reporting by Dean Yates; Editing by Keith Weir)