A view of the US embassy compound in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. (File photo by Reuters)
Baghdad, December 10 (RHC)-- The U.S. embassy in Baghdad came under fire with rockets as anti-U.S. sentiments run high in the country over Washington’s staunch support for the ongoing Israeli genocide against Gazans.
Explosions were heard early on Friday near the Iraqi capital’s heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the embassy. A U.S. embassy spokesperson confirmed the attack, saying it did not result in any casualties.
An Iraqi security official said 14 Katyusha rockets were fired and that while some struck near one of the embassy’s gates, others fell into the nearby Tigris River. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
It marked the first time the U.S. embassy had been fired on, after dozens of attacks on military bases housing U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since mid-October. The U.S. has several times attacked Iraq’s Popular Mobilization forces over the past weeks, killing several Iraqi forces.
Many such attacks against the U.S. forces have been claimed by groups operating under the banner of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.
On Friday, the Islamic Resistance announced two fresh attacks targeting the Ain al-Assad airbase in western Iraq as well as a U.S. base in the Koniko gas field in Syria. The movement has urged Washington to stop its unconditional support for Israeli atrocities against Palestinians.
Baghdad and other cities in Iraq have over the past weeks been scenes of massive popular protests against the Israeli onslaught and Washington’s support for it.
The increase in attacks on US military bases in the region is because the events unfolding in the besieged Gaza Strip are not unrelated to the Axis of Resistance, says an Iraqi political analyst. The Pentagon reported on Thursday its forces have been targeted 78 times in Iraq and Syria since October 7, when Israel began its onslaught on Gaza. The Pentagon says those attacks have injured several dozens of American troops.
The United States, Israel’s biggest ally, has provided the regime with huge caches of arms and ammunition since the beginning of the Gaza war. Washington has also vetoed United Nations Security Council resolutions that called on the occupying regime to cease its aggression.
Iraqi resistance groups have vowed to continue retaliatory attacks against US forces in the region as long as Israel continues to kill Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
