Four Rockets Land near US Embassy in Baghdad’s Green Zone

It announced in a statement on Tuesday that four Katyusha rockets had landed near the US Embassy in the heavily fortified Baghdad Green Zone, with reports of sirens having gone off in the diplomatic mission.

The statement added that the rockets had been fired from the New Baghdad district located in the east of the capital, Press TV reported.

There were no immediate words on possible damage or casualties, but Iraqi officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press news agency that at least two Iraqi security personnel had sustained injuries in the attack.

The heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, which hosts foreign diplomatic sites and government buildings, has been frequently targeted by rockets and explosives in the past few years.

Washington, each time, has been quick to point the finger at popular anti-terror groups, which are now integrated into Iraq's armed forces.

The US has time and again targeted positions of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), also known as Hashd al-Sha’abi, after blaming the major anti-terror force for the rocket attacks. The popular group has strongly denied any involvement in the strikes.

The Tuesday incident marks the first such attack after anti-terror groups in Iraq agreed last month to stop military operations against US and foreign forces in Iraq to allow them to leave the Arab country.

Anti-American sentiments have been running high in Iraq since the US assassinated Iran’s anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, and the deputy head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in Baghdad on January 3.

Just days later, Iraqi lawmakers unanimously passed a bill mandating the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq.

The US has refused to withdraw its troops, with US President Donald Trump balking at the idea with the threat to seize Iraq's oil money held in bank accounts in the United States.

Iraqi resistance groups have pledged to take up arms against US forces if Washington fails to comply with the parliamentary order.       

The US announced on Tuesday that it would slash troop levels in Afghanistan and Iraq to 2,500 in each country, their lowest levels in nearly 20 years of invasion.

Washington still has some 3,000 troops stationed across Iraq.

source tasnim