According to security sources, air defense systems shot down rockets that were fired at the US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital.
According to AFP, this is the first attack on the embassy in Baghdad since the commencement of the Middle East war, which was started by a combined US-Israeli strike on Iran that Iraq got involved in.
Our reporters in Baghdad heard loud bangs last night. A witness in the fortified Green Zone, where the US embassy is located, said they saw air defenses go up over the region.
A security officer said, “Four rockets were fired at the embassy.” He went on to say that air defenses shot down three of them and that one fell in an open area at the embassy’s airbase.
Two other security sources corroborated the incident. One of them said that all of the rockets were shot down, even the one that fell on the airbase.
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani told security forces to find the people who did “the terrorist act” against the US embassy.
He claimed that “attacking diplomatic missions and embassies in Iraq is something that can never be justified or accepted.”
Iraq had been a battleground between the US and Iran for a long time, but it didn’t want to get involved in the Middle East conflict. However, it wasn’t spared.
It got involved in the war right away, with the US and Israel blaming Iran-backed forces for attacks on US sites in Iraq and the surrounding.
Drone and rocket assaults have hit Baghdad International Airport, which has a US diplomatic post and a military installation, as well as oil reserves and facilities.
The northern autonomous Kurdistan area, where US soldiers are stationed, has also been a major target of drone assaults, most of which were stopped.
Our correspondent said they heard a drone and then at least three big bangs in Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan. This is also where a large US consulate complex is located.
Airstrikes
The government’s security media unit reported that airstrikes damaged military bases in the northern Nineveh region that used to belong to the paramilitary group Hashed al-Shaabi.
One warrior died and three were hurt.
The Hashed al-Shaabi, also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), is a group of militias that are now part of the regular army. Some of these factions are funded by Iran and are known for acting on their own.
Since the war began, Hashed al-Shaabi bases have been targeted many times.
The group’s media cell reported that “unidentified aircraft” carried out the strikes yesterday. However, a PMF official told our reporter that “an airstrike, likely American, hit a Hashed base” near the city of Mosul.
Militants from the Kurdish group
Several Iranian Kurdish rebel organizations have camps and rear bases in Iraq’s Kurdistan. Iran has attacked these locations many times since the war began.
The Revolutionary Guards of Iran stated on Saturday that they had targeted “separatist groups” in Iraqi Kurdistan. This came after Tehran warned to attack “all the facilities” of Kurdistan if militants were allowed to enter the Islamic Republic.
Iraq’s border guards say that no forces have crossed into Iran yet.
On Friday, the Iraqi government and the autonomous region agreed that Iraq should not be a base for attacks on other nations.
About the Author
