By Ali Jawad
BAGHDAD (AA): At least three people were injured in a missile attack that struck the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, an Iraqi police source said on Monday.
Unidentified persons launched five Katyusha rockets landed early Monday in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Iraq’s capital, some of which directly struck the U.S. Embassy which led to the burning of a restaurant inside the embassy compound, according to the security source.
“The shelling that targeted the American Embassy building and its surroundings wounded three people who were evacuated immediately by the American side,” the police source told Anadolu Agency in condition of anonymity due to restrictions to speak to media.
The source did not mention the nationality of the injured people nor the severity of their injuries.
“The American forces, in charge of protecting the embassy, have shut all roads leading to the building and imposed strict security measures after the missile attack,” the source noted.
It is the third attack of its kind this month and it is not yet clear who was behind it.
Earlier, Iraq’s caretaker Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi condemned the attack and ordered to bring those who are responsible for it to justice.
Abdul-Mahdi, according to a statement, warned that “the continuation of this irresponsible behavior may lead to serious repercussions and harm the country’s higher interests and its relations with its friends,”
“These acts may drag the country into a battlefield, especially at a time when we started to implement the decision to withdraw foreign troops from Iraq,” he said in a statement.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes two days after thousands of Iraqis gathered in Baghdad and called for the U.S. troops to leave the country.
The presence of foreign troops in Iraq has surfaced after top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani was assassinated earlier this month in a U.S. drone strike outside Baghdad International Airport.
* Bassel Ibrahim contributed to this report from Ankara.
[Photo: Over a million people demonstrated against presence of US troops in Iraq. Photo shows thousands of Iraqis gathering at Jadariya, a neighborhood in the Baghdad city center at a rally against the presence of U.S. troops in the country, in Baghdad, Iraq on January 24, 2020. Photographer: Murtadha Al-Sudani/AA]
