US Embassy in Baghdad Reportedly Targeted By Two Katyusha Rockets

The reported strike was launched a few weeks after at least six Katyusha rockets hit a military air base housing US-led coalition forces in the western Iraqi province of Anbar.

The US Embassy in Baghdad has been targeted by two Katyusha rockets, the AFP news agency cited unnamed security sources as saying on Thursday. There was no immediate word on casualties. 

The reported strike, which allegedly hit Baghdad's Green Zone, was launched a few weeks after at least six Katyusha rockets hit a military air base housing US-led coalition forces in the western Iraqi province of Anbar.

Over the past few months, the Iraqi military bases housing US troops across the country, as well as the US Embassy in Baghdad have been repeatedly targeted by mortar and rocket attacks, which Washington claims are the work of militant groups backed by Iran. 

As for Thursday's developments, these follow US President Joe Biden on Monday revealing that Washington's partnership with Baghdad would continue for the near future, but that no combat troops would be present in Iraq after 2021.

A joint statement issued by both American and Iraqi officials at the time stated that no US forces with a combat role would be present in Iraq by the end of the year. 

"The delegations decided, following recent technical talks, that the security relationship will fully transition to a training, advising, assisting, and intelligence-sharing role, and that there will be no US forces with a combat role in Iraq by 31 December 2021", the statement noted.

The US has maintained a troop presence in Iraq since March 2003, when tens of thousands of American forces were deployed as part of a larger effort to oust former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein under a pretext that his regime possessed weapons of mass destruction, which was never found, though.

Although American forces were withdrawn from Iraq under the Obama administration, they were eventually redeployed in 2014 to tackle the Daesh* terrorist group.

Iraqi officials began pressuring the US to withdraw from their country in early 2020, after top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani was killed by a US drone strike on his car near the Baghdad International Airport on 3 January of that year. The attack was authorised by then-POTUS Donald Trump. 

Shortly thereafter, the Iraqi Parliament unanimously approved a bill stipulating the expulsion of all foreign military forces led by the US from Iraq.

At the time, the Pentagon began slashing US troop numbers from 5,300 to 2,500, handing over several major military bases to Iraqi forces, but refused to agree with the parliament's demands to leave the country outright.

*Daesh (ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State), a terrorist group banned in Russia and a spate of other countries