Several rockets blast inside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Area, which houses the United States embassy and the Balad Air Force Base, an Iraqi air base housing US troops, in Baghdad on Saturday. No casualty has been reported so far, the Iraqi military said.
The missile attacks near the US embassy and at the Balad Air Force Base have come a day after a deadly American strike in Baghdad which killed top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.
“Several rockets targeting Celebration Square and the Jadriya area in Baghdad, and the Balad air base in Salahuddin province, with no loss of life. Further details to come,” the military said in a statement. The Iraqi military said that one projectile hit inside the zone, while another landed close to the enclave.
Katyusha rockets hit Baghdad’s Green Area where the United States embassy is located and the Al-Balad base, security sources said. The Green Zone area houses government buildings and foreign missions.
Sirens immediately rang out at the American compound in Baghdad hosting both diplomats and troops, while the US helicopters were seen in the sky over Baghdad soon after the blasts were heard.
The reported attacks near the US embassy in Green Zone and the Balad Air Force Base has come a day after top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani was killed in a US strike on Baghdad’s international airport, Iran and the US confirmed.
The US has feared a backlash against its mission and bases where its troops are deployed across Iraq following the precision drone strike that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani on Friday.
After the death of General Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed “severe revenge” after the United States killed General Qassem Soleimani, the chief of Iran’s elite Quds Force, in an airstrike at the Baghdad airport on Friday.
“With him gone, God willing, his work and his path will not be stopped, but severe revenge awaits the criminals who bloodied their foul hands with his blood and other martyrs’ in last night’s incident. All enemies should know that the jihad of resistance will continue with a doubled motivation, and a definite victory awaits the fighters in the holy war,” Khamenei said in a statement telecast by the state TV.
Meanwhile, the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran raised the Red Flag of Hussein over the Holy Dome of Jamkaran Mosque, in Qom city of Iran. The Red Flag signals that a major war is to come or is even now underway.
A pair of Katyusharockets then struck the Al-Balad Air Force Base hosting US troops in the north of the capital. Security sources there reported blaring sirens and said surveillance drones were sent above the base to locate the source of the rockets.
Thousands of people marched in Baghdad on Saturday to mourn Soleimani and others killed in the air strike, with marchers waving Iraqi and militia flags in a sombre atmosphere. Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi and militia commander Hadi al-Amiri, a close Iran ally and the top candidate to succeed Muhandis, attending the procession.
Soleimani was one of the most popular figures in Iran and was seen as a deadly adversary by the US and its allies. Top Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an adviser to Soleimani, was also killed in the attack on Friday.
