Rocket lands in vicinity of US Embassy in Baghdad

BAGHDAD

A rocket attack targeted the vicinity of the US Embassy in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, an area that hosts most of the foreign diplomatic missions, an Iraqi security source said on Thursday.

“A Katyusha rocket landed in the vicinity of the US Embassy inside the Green Zone area in Baghdad, but no casualties were reported,” a police officer, requesting anonymity, told Anadolu Agency.

The officer said several vehicles were damaged in the attack, adding another rocket landed in the Green Zone, but caused no damage.

The attack comes three days after an agreement between Baghdad and Washington which stipulated the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq at the end of 2021.

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Green Zone has regularly come under rocket attack since the assassination in January last year of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike.

Washington blames Iran-backed Shia militias for such rocket attacks on foreign diplomatic missions and the US and foreign troops in Iraq.

*Bassel Barakat contributed to this report from Ankara