Three rockets have reportedly landed inside the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, home to the US Embassy and the seat of Iraq’s government, city residents said on Sunday.
Alert sirens were sounded in the area on the west bank of the Tigris River.
Police sources told Reuters that the projectiles were Katyusha rockets. Witnesses told AFP they saw two rockets hit near the US embassy.
There were some injuries to civilians, local media reported.
The attack came shortly after the deadline from a hardline pro-Iran faction for local troops to get away from US forces, following the US airstrike in Baghdad on Friday that killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and a high-ranking Iraqi militia leader.
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The vehemently anti-American group Kataeb Hezbollah had warned Iraqi security forces to “get away” from US troops at joint bases across Iraq by 5 p.m.
Sunday’s attack marks the 14th time rockets have been fired toward US installations in Iraq over the last two months.
Late Saturday, missiles slammed into the Baghdad enclave where the US embassy is located and an airbase north of the capital housing American troops, prompting US President Donald Trump to threaten strikes on 52 sites in Iran.
The near-simultaneous attacks seemed to be the first phase of promised retaliation for the airstrike that killed Soleimani.
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