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Rockets fired at Baghdad Green Zone: Iraqi military | News

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One rocket was destroyed by the air defense system and another landed near a national monument, damaging two cars, according to the Iraqi army.

The two Katyusha rockets have hit a strong Green Zone in Baghdad, home to several Western embassies, the Iraqi military said.

One rocket was destroyed by the C-RAM defense system in the air and the other landed near a national monument and damaged two cars, the military said in a statement on Sunday.

Security forces launched an investigation to detect the shooting site. No immediate responsibility was claimed for the attack.

A U.S. military official told Reuters that the C-RAM system had fired a round and none of them had landed at the U.S. embassy. The official said there were no dead Americans. Other dead are still unknown.

The Green Zone is home to foreign embassies, including the U.S. embassy, ​​and is the target of rockets fired by government buildings and regularly by groups of U.S. and Iraqi officials backed by Iran.

U.S. officials say Iran-backed armed groups may intensify attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria in the coming weeks, in part because of the anniversary of the assassination of Iran’s top general Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al. -Muhandis.

Both were killed by a U.S. drone strike in Iraq on January 2, 2020.

The latest rocket rescue comes after the Iraqi-led anti-ISIL (ISIS) coalition was announced in its territory this week after the end of its “combat mission.”

But roughly 2,500 U.S. troops deployed in Iraq and 1,000 soldiers from the coalition nationwide will remain in training, counseling and support.

Iraqi pro-Iraqi factions are demanding the withdrawal of all U.S. forces stationed in the country.

The attack also coincides with the 10th anniversary of the departure of U.S. troops from Iraq on December 18, 2011, following the 2003 invasion and overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

Washington deployed its troops to the country to fight ISIL, which captured large parts of the nation in an offensive lightning strike.

In early November, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi escaped unharmed from an unclaimed drone bomb attack aimed at his official headquarters in the Green Zone.

In September, an “armed drone” struck Erbil International Airport in a semi-autonomous Kurdish region, where there is a base for coalition troops.



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