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Iraq
Four rockets were seized by security forces in the Amanah district of Baghdad, March 5, 2020. Photo: Iraq Security Media Cell
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – At least one Katyusha rocket crashed into the Mansour district of western Baghdad near the fortified Green Zone late on Thursday, Iraqi security officials confirmed early Friday. There were no reports of casualties.
The Iraqi security media cell tweeted early on Friday that at least one rocket landed near a police station in the Mansour district.
The rocket appears to have been launched from the Amanah district on the other side of the Tigris River in eastern Baghdad.
Security forces searched the Amanah area and recovered four more rockets which had been prepared for launch.
They did not say who was responsible for the attack.
Late on Thursday, Reuters reported that three Katyusha rockets had been launched, with one striking near the entrance to the Green Zone, another close to the Turkish embassy, and a third landing outside the Green Zone.
It is likely the rockets were all intended to strike the Green Zone.
Baghdad has seen several rocket attacks in the recent months, most of them targeting the Green Zone, which hosts several Iraqi government ministries, the federal parliament, and foreign diplomatic missions including the sprawling US embassy compound.
It is also home to Forward Operating Base (FOB) Union III, also known as Al-Tawheed Al-Thalith, the main headquarters of the global coalition to defeat the Islamic State group (ISIS). The facility was hit in a rocket attack last month.
Following months of heightened tensions between the US and Iraq’s influential neighbour Iran, rocket attacks on US infrastructure and personnel in the Green Zone and elsewhere in Iraq have become increasingly frequent.
US officials accuse Iran-backed Iraqi militias of launching the attacks.
There are roughly 5,000 US troops stationed in Iraq alongside several NATO forces advising and assisting Iraqi and Kurdish forces in the fight against ISIS remnants.
The presence of US troops in Iraq has always been contentious for Shiite political parties and Iran-backed Shiite paramilitias.
Following the January 3 US drone strike on Baghdad airport, which killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi militia chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Shiite blocs in the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution demanding the expulsion of US forces from Iraq.
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