Rocket hits near US embassy in Baghdad: security sources
One rocket hit near to the US embassy in Baghdad early Tuesday morning, security sources told AFP, the first ever to land in the high-security zone in weeks.
The blast could possibly be heard over the Iraqi capital and triggered security sirens at the united states embassy compound but didn't cause casualties, the sources confirmed.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
It follows a lot more than two dozen similar attacks against American interests in Iraq since October that the united states has blamed on Iran-backed factions among Iraq’s security forces.
The volleys of rockets, that have killed US, British and Iraqi armed personnel, have severely strained ties between Baghdad and Washington.
Tensions reached boiling point in January when the US killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a drone strike on Baghdad.
But the US and Iraq have hoped to reset the relationship since Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi took the helm earlier this month, with bilateral talks planned for June.
The negotiations are expected to create a framework for the existence of US troops, which deployed to Iraq in 2014 to lead a coalition fighting back the Islamic State group.
But the forces are a thorn in the side of Iran and its own allies in Iraq, that have insisted they leave the united states.
On Sunday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the US “will not be staying either in Iraq or Syria and must withdraw and can certainly be expelled”.
The US-led coalition has recently drawn down its 7,500-strong force in Iraq this year, citing a reduced threat from IS and difficulties training Iraqi forces as a result of spread of the coronavirus.
