The US embassy in Baghdad was targeted with several missiles. no casualties were reported

• The attack was likely carried out by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.
• The Iraqi prime minister orders the security services to pursue the perpetrators.
• The UN mission in Iraq also condemns the attack.

The US embassy in Baghdad was hit by two rockets on Friday morning, but no casualties were reported, an embassy spokesman said.

According to the spokesman, the attack was likely carried out by militias in Iraq backed by Iran, but no group immediately claimed responsibility.

The incident marks the first known rocket attack targeting the embassy since attacks against US forces on military bases in neighboring Syria and Iraq by a loose coalition of Iranian-backed militias began in mid-October. Reuters mentionted.

Operating under the banner of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, the armed groups have linked more than 70 of these attacks to Washington’s support for Israel in its deadly assault on Gaza.

“We again call on the Iraqi government, as we have done many times, to do everything in its power to protect diplomatic personnel and facilities and those of Coalition partners,” the embassy spokesman said.

Around 4 am, explosions were heard near the embassy in the center of the Iraqi capital.

Videos of the scene posted on social media showed sirens going off alerting people to evacuate.

After the attack, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani asked security services to pursue the attackers, describing them as “unruly, illegal groups that do not in any way represent the will of the Iraqi people,” a statement from his office said. .

In addition, he referred to undermining Iraq’s stability and reputation and targeting places that Iraq is committed to protecting as acts of terrorism.

In addition to its diplomatic staff, the U.S. has about 2,500 troops in Iraq on a mission it says is to support and advise local forces trying to prevent the resurgence of Islamic State, which seized large swathes of both countries in 2014 before being defeated.

“We reiterate that we reserve the right to self-defense and to protect our personnel anywhere in the world,” the spokesman said.

The UN mission in Iraq condemned the attack. “Iraq cannot afford to be drawn into a wider conflict, which would threaten its hard-won stability and achievements so far,” he said in a social media post.