Three rockets directly hit U.S. embassy in Iraqi’s capital, Baghdad on Sunday, 26th January 2020. The strike is the first to hit the US embassy, though no casualties so far have been reported.
The U.S. embassy did not immediately comment on the rocket strikes on its embassy. Iraqi security forces confirmed that there was an ‘attack’ on U.S. embassy in Baghdad and said there were no casualties.
The Sunday’s attack marks the first reported incidence of a direct hit on the U.S. embassy at a time the two countries are embroiled in an impasse.
According to Iraqi security sources, the rocket attack was the second in a week near the U.S. embassy, after three rockets landed near the mission on January 20.
A U.S. source separately told media that last Monday’s strike saw at least one rocket land near the deputy ambassador’s residence.
Iraq’s interim Prime Minister Adil Abdel Mahdi and Speaker of Parliament Mohammed Halbusi both condemned the attack, saying it risked dragging their homeland into war and highlighted on measures aimed at removing foreign forces from Iraq.
The U.S. maintains some 5,000 troops in Iraq in support of the international military Coalition against ISIS and NATO’s stabilization mission in Iraq.
The U.S. has attributed such attack to the Iran-linked militias in Iraq, including the predominantly-Shiite Kataib Hezbollah militia, which operates with significant self-sufficiency from Baghdad’s authority and has ties to Tehran.
This weekend, the U.S. military acknowledged that 34 of their troops suffered brain injuries in Iran’s retaliatory strike on U.S. bases.
