According to the Iraqi military, two Katyusha rockets targeted Baghdad’s strongly protected Green Zone, which includes several Western embassies.
The C-RAM defence system destroyed one rocket in the air, while the other landed near a national monument and damaged two automobiles, according to the military.
The search for the launch site was launched by security forces. The attack was not immediately claimed as a result of a claim of responsibility.
According to the news agency, one of the rounds was brought down by the C-RAM system, and none of them landed in the US embassy. There were no American casualties, according to the official. Other casualties have yet to be identified.
The Green Zone is home to foreign embassies and government facilities, including the US embassy, and is frequently targeted by rockets fired by forces backed by Iran, according to US and Iraqi officials.
According to US sources, Iranian-backed armed organisations in Iraq and Syria may intensify attacks on US soldiers in the coming weeks, in part to commemorate the killing of Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
On January 2, 2020, the two were slain in Iraq by a US drone strike.
The latest rocket barrage comes after Iraq announced this week that the anti-ISIL (ISIS) coalition led by Washington had completed its “combat mission” on its soil.
However, around 2,500 American forces and 1,000 coalition soldiers now stationed in Iraq will remain to provide training, advice, and assistance.
In Iraq, pro-Iran elements are pushing for the withdrawal of all US forces stationed there.
The strike also comes on the tenth anniversary of the withdrawal of US soldiers from Iraq on December 18, 2011, following Saddam Hussein’s overthrow in 2003.
The United States then sent soldiers into the country to combat ISIL, which had taken vast areas of the country in a rapid offensive.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi escaped uninjured from an unclaimed drone bomb strike on his official residence in the Green Zone in early November.
An “armed drone” strike in September targeted Erbil international airport in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, where coalition soldiers are stationed.
