The US embassy in Baghdad was targeted in a rocket attack over the weekend as Iraq found itself being drawn deeper into the war engulfing neighbouring Iran and the Persian Gulf region more broadly.
There were no casualties in the attack on Saturday night, and it was not immediately clear who was behind it. Two rockets were intercepted, a third landed on the edge of the embassy grounds and another landed inside the grounds, according to an Iraqi security official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military issues.
The attack appeared to have activated an air defence system near the embassy, according to video posted to social media and verified by The New York Times.
Iraq, which has close ties to both Iran and the US, finds itself once again caught between two allies. The Trump administration has stepped up pressure on Iraq’s leaders in recent months to distance themselves from Iran politically and to rein in Iraqi militias linked to Iran.
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani of Iraq ordered military and security commanders to pursue the perpetrators, adding that “targeting diplomatic missions and embassies operating in Iraq is an act that cannot be justified or accepted under any circumstances”. He added that such attacks affect the stability of the entire country.
Iraq is home to a number of politicians and militias with close ties to Iran. The headquarters of one of those Iraqi militias, known as Kataib Hezbollah, was hit with airstrikes on February 28, the first day of the war, killing three militia members and wounding others.
Neither the US Central Command nor the Israeli military claimed responsibility for the February 28 strikes. But the Popular Mobilisation Forces, the umbrella group of Iraq’s more than two dozen militias, blamed the “Zionist-American forces”.
Kataib Hezbollah, along with other Iran-allied armed groups in Iraq, immediately threatened to retaliate against the US and Israel.
A leader in the group’s operations command, speaking to The New York Times, at the time threatened to soon begin attacking American bases in response.
Since then, the group and other Iraqi militias have used drones to attack a US base in Iraq’s semiautonomous northern Kurdistan region. They said this was in defence of Iraq’s sovereignty and in support of Iran, according to a statement.
They have also struck Kurdistan’s airport, oil and gas facilities and at least two bases used by Iranian Kurdish armed groups based there.
By Friday, the militias claimed to have carried out 28 attacks against “enemy bases and interests”.
The US government considers Kataib Hezbollah a terrorist organisation and has repeatedly targeted it with airstrikes in Iraq. The group was founded after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and the rise of anti-American sentiment in the country and broader region.
Crude collapse
Iraqi oil production from its main southern oilfields has fallen by 70 per cent to just 1.3 million barrels per day as the country is unable to export oil via the Strait of Hormuz due to the Iran war, three industry sources said on Sunday.
Production from the fields stood at around 4.3 million barrels per day before the war.
"Crude storage has reached maximum capacity and the remaining output after the major cut will be used to supply the country’s refineries," said an official with the state-run Basra Oil Company, which manages production and export operations from the southern fields.
New York Times News Service and Reuters