A drone attack struck the US embassy in Baghdad following deadly strikes on an Iran-backed militia, escalating regional tensions amid the ongoing Middle East conflict.
BAGHDAD: The US embassy in Baghdad was struck by a drone on Saturday. The attack followed earlier strikes that killed three members of a powerful Iran-backed militia in the Iraqi capital.
A cloud of black smoke rose above the diplomatic mission after explosions were heard in the morning. Two Iraqi security officials confirmed the embassy complex was hit by a drone.
The embassy issued an updated security alert urging US citizens to “leave now”. It warned people not to come to the Baghdad embassy or the consulate in Erbil “in light of the ongoing risk of missiles, drones, and rockets in Iraqi airspace”.
“Iran-aligned terrorist militias have repeatedly attacked the International Zone” in Baghdad, the embassy stated on social media platform X. It is the second time the embassy has been attacked since the wider Middle East war began.
The attack occurred shortly after two separate strikes targeted the Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah group. Three of its members were killed, including a commander named Abou Ali al-Amiri.
The first strike hit a house in Baghdad’s Arasat neighbourhood. A second attack struck a vehicle in the Nahrawan district two hours later.
A pro-Iranian source described the strike on the house as a “targeted assassination” attempt. Local media reports suggested the group’s top leader, Ahmad al-Hamidawi, was wounded, though this could not be independently verified.
Late on Saturday, a drone attack targeted the Baghdad airport complex. Security sources said the drone was intercepted, but a crashed device sparked a large blaze outside the area, which houses a military base and a US diplomatic facility.
Iraq has long been a proxy battleground between the United States and Iran. It was dragged into the regional conflict after US and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February.
Since then, an umbrella movement of Iran-backed armed groups, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, has claimed daily attacks on US bases. Several attacks on these groups across Iraq have been blamed on the US and Israel.
The Sun Malaysia
