Guwahati News Desk: In yet another incident, three rockets were fired at the US embassy in Baghdad early on Thursday.
However, the embassy luckily escaped but three nearby places in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone were destroyed.
As stated by a security official who was a witness to the event, it was the embassy’s anti-rocket system, that was responsible for diverting the rockets, which then fell near the zone’s perimeter. Immediately, sirens blared from the embassy compound inside the zone, which houses government buildings and foreign missions.
As per the reports, even on Wednesday, a total of fourteen rockets were fired at an air base hosting American troops in the western province of Anbar, that ended up causing minor injuries to two US personnel.
Although there were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks, the analysts believe that the ongoing attacks are a part of a campaign by the Iranian-backed armed groups.
The coalition spokesman and US Army Colonel, Wayne Marotto said, “Each attack against the GoI, KRI and the Coalition undermines the authority of Iraqi institutions, the rule of law and Iraqi National sovereignty. These attacks endanger the lives of Iraqi civilians, and the partner forces from the ISF, Peshmerga and Coalition.”
While the US State Department spokesman Ned Price told, “These attacks reflect and are representative of the threat that Iran-backed militias present fundamentally to Iraq’s sovereignty and to Iraq’s stability.”
The US forces, who have deployed over 2,500 troops in Iraq as part of an international anti-Islamic State group coalition, have been already targeted nearly 50 times this year in the country, but in the last few days there has been a sudden increase in the frequency of attacks.