BAGHDAD — Two
rockets targeted Baghdad's ultra-secure
Green Zone that houses the
US embassy
early Sunday, Iraq's security forces said in a statement.
اضافة اعلان
"The Green Zone in Baghdad was the
target of two Katyusha rockets. The first was shot down in the air by C-RAM
defense batteries, the second fell in a square, damaging two vehicles,"
the statement said.
A security source told AFP that the shot
down rocket fell near the US embassy, while the second came down roughly 500m away.
Previously, the source told AFP that two
rockets had been shot down near the US embassy.
Captain Bill Urban, spokesman for the
US Central Command, told AFP the incident caused no casualties.
He said no shots hit the embassy or the
so-called Union III area where US-led coalition forces are based.
No one claimed responsibility for the
attack.
In recent months, dozens of rocket assaults
or drone bomb attacks have targeted American troops and interests in Iraq.
The attacks are rarely claimed but are
routinely pinned on pro-Iran factions.
The latest rocket fire comes after the
announcement this week of the end of the "combat mission" in Iraq of
the US-led coalition against Daesh.
But roughly 2,500 American soldiers and
1,000 coalition soldiers will remain deployed in Iraq to offer training, advice
and assistance to national forces.
Pro-Iran factions in Iraq are calling for
the departure of all US forces stationed in the country.
Sunday's attack also coincides with the 10th
anniversary of the departure of US troops from
Iraq on December 18, 2011, after
the invasion and overthrow of former dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Washington then deployed its troops to the
country in 2014 to fight IS, which had captured large swathes of the nation in
a lightning offensive.
At the beginning of November, Iraqi Prime
Minister
Mustafa al-Kadhemi escaped unharmed in an unclaimed drone bomb attack
which targeted his official residence in the Green Zone.
In September, an "armed drone"
attack targeted Erbil international airport in Iraqi Kurdistan, where a base
hosts coalition troops.
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