Two rockets land near US embassy in Baghdad

BAGHDAD: Rockets landed in and around the heavily fortified Green Zone in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, which houses the US Embassy, causing material damage early Thursday, Iraqi security forces said.

Two Katuysha rockets fell near the national security building, and in an open courtyard inside the Green Zone.

A third rocket fell in a nearby residential area, damaging a civilian vehicle, the statement by the Iraqi security media cell said.

The atack which came shortly before daybreak followed two separate atacks on bases housing US troops in western Iraq and across the border in Syria, where Us-led coalition forces are based. The drone atack on Wednesday in eastern Syria was foiled while 14 rockets landed in Al Assad Air Base in western Iraq, lightly wounding two personnel.

A statement from the Security Media Cell, affiliated with Iraq’s security forces, on Thursday said these atacks endangers the lives of citizens and targets diplomatic missions and will be faced forcefully.

Also on Thursday, the spokesman for the Us-led coalition Colonel Wayne Maroto said these atacks undermine “the authority of Iraqi authorities, the rule of law and Iraqi National sovereignty.” Iraqi General Hamad Namess said a total of 24 rockets were fired on Tuesday, from a truck transporting flour.

“The vehicle had all the necessary authorisations to cross the checkpoints,” he told journalists Thursday, speaking at the site of the atacks.

One senior military official warned that Iraqi armed groups “are playing with fire.” “We can expect the cycle to continue”, said Marsin Alshamary, an Iraq specialist at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think-tank.

Iraq researcher Hamdi Malik of the Washington Institute said recent atacks by Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Eastern Syria was a way of bolstering support.

Pro-iranian groups suffered a heavy blow in January last year with the US killing of Iran’s revered commander Qasem Soleimani and his Iraqi lieutenant Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis.

“By not acting when more of their people are killed, (pro-iran groups) risk losing their credibility and legitimacy in the eyes of their own bases,” Malik said.

They are also cautious of “losing respect in the eyes of other components of the ‘axis of resistance’ in other countries in the region,” he said, referring to pro-iranian forces in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

On the other side, Washington “is trying to curb the influence and the authority of these militias,” said Alshamary.