New missile strike on the US Embassy in Iraq

Last Monday, several missiles were launched at the US embassy in Baghdad’s high-security green zone. Iraq’s capital, local security sources said.

At least two were within the perimeter of the Green Zone, where the embassies of the United States and other countries are located, according to a statement from Iraqi security services.

The attack is the third in a week targeting Western diplomatic, military or commercial facilities in Iraq. after months of relative rest.

A security source told AFP that at least one missile hit the headquarters of the Iraqi National Security Service near the US diplomatic mission.

Others bumped into it nearby residential areasincluding a multi-story parking complex in Harithiya district, a witness detailed.

The attack is taking place a week after more than a dozen missiles will target a military complex at Erbil airport in northern Iraq, which is home to foreign troops from a US-led coalition that has been helping Iraq fight terrorists since 2014.

Two people died, including a foreign contractor at the airport, and a civilian who died of injuries on Monday.

On Saturday, a new wave of missiles hit the Al-Balad air base north of Baghdad, where Iraq keeps most of the F-16s it has purchased from the United States in recent years.

Security sources said at least one local contractor from Sallyport, the US company that maintains the planes, has been injured.

Last week, after the attacks in Erbil, the United States did not rule out responding to hostilities. “The President of the United States (Joe Biden) and the Government reserve the right to respond at any time and in any way”, the White House spokeswoman indicated, Jen Psaki, at his press conference last Tuesday.

The official stressed that the United States has not yet identified who was responsible for the attack, and until it does, it will not take steps to respond to it.Although he claimed that both the State Department and the Pentagon assisted Iraqi authorities in the investigation.

The attack took place just three weeks before Pope Francis visits Erbil, a region that is relatively stable and free from the presence of Islamic State terrorists (ISIS, for the abbreviation in English).

Erbil airport was also attacked last September, with six missiles that caused no material damage or casualties and whose responsibility has not been established. Last Tuesday, the air base remained closed while authorities assessed the damage, his boss said, Ahmad Hoshyar, to the AFP office.

After what happened, the UN warned that Iraq could slide back into instability. On Twitter, the UN representative in Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, condemned “heinous and dangerous acts” that “pose a serious threat to stability”.

He also called for “restraint” and cooperation in the investigation between Erbil, the capital of the autonomous region of Kurdistan (north), and Baghdad.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), in power in the region, accused groups “under the shadow” of Hashd al Shaabi, a coalition of paramilitaries now integrated into the Iraqi state, of being “at the root of the attack” to stand.

The Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa al Kazimi, denounced an attack aimed at “creating chaos” in Iraq and pledged to prevent his country from becoming a “backyard” where regional conflicts take place.

Two intelligence sources told AFP that the missiles were launched from the autonomous region. The attack, meanwhile, was claimed by a little-known group calling itself Awliyaa al Dam (“The Guardians of the Blood”). Security officials said they believe it is a cover name to cover up known pro-Iranian factions that want coalition forces to leave the country.

Western military and diplomatic facilities have been targeted by dozens of missiles in Iraq since late 2019, most of them in Baghdad. Nevertheless, Iranian missiles were fired at Erbil airport in January 2020, days after the death of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani from a US drone strike in Baghdad., an attack that raised fears of a direct war between Iran and the United States.

With information from AFP

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