The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was targeted by multiple rockets Thursday.
U.S. officials said the attacks were launched by “terrorist groups” but did not say who specifically was responsible. A woman and a child from a nearby school were wounded in the attack, but a State Department official told CNN that U.S. personnel in the area are safe.
“The U.S. Embassy compound was attacked this evening by terrorist groups attempting to undermine Iraq’s security, sovereignty, and international relations,” the embassy said in a tweet. “We have long said that these sorts of reprehensible attacks are an assault not just on diplomatic facilities, but on the sovereignty of Iraq itself.”
There were at least four missiles reported in the area. Three landed within the perimeter of the embassy, and one hit a nearby school, ABC reported. The rockets landed in the Green Zone, a fortified international zone where multiple foreign embassies are located. The rockets were believed to have been launched from the Dora neighborhood in southern Baghdad roughly 5 miles away.
Iraqi President Barham Salih condemned the attacks as a “blow to Iraq’s interests and its international reputation” in a tweet Thursday.
The rockets activated the embassy’s anti-rocket system, according to video captured by BBC reporter Nafiseh Kohnavard.
Breaking
US embassy’s anti rocket system C-RAM in Baghdad activated a few seconds ago
I heard explosions
Video taken by me pic.twitter.com/P9XCn0GjMY
— Nafiseh Kohnavard (@nafisehkBBC) January 13, 2022
The attacks follow multiple attacks against U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq and Syria last week, which included multiple rounds fired by insurgents near a base in Syria and rockets launched near a base with U.S. troops in western Anbar Province in Iraq. In both instances, there were no casualties reported among coalition forces.
The attacks are coinciding with the two-year anniversary of the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, the former general of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, on Jan. 3, 2020, in Baghdad. Soleimani was killed in a drone strike ordered by then-President Donald Trump. However, it is unclear if any of the recent attacks were related to the anniversary.
Pro-Iranian forces, including militias in Iraq and Syria, have long sought revenge for the death of Soleimani. On Wednesday, a video animation depicting a drone killing Trump was released on the website of Iran’s supreme leader.
Source » washingtonexaminer