Fire at US embassy in Baghdad as security official reports drone and rocket strikes

2026.03.17 19:20 Smoke rises after an explosion at the US embassy compound in Baghdad, Iraq, following a reported rocket and drone attack on Tuesday, in an image taken with a mobile phone. Photo: Reuters Several loud explosions were heard on Tuesday evening in Iraq’s capital Baghdad, Agence France-Presse journalists reported, with a security official reporting a drone and rocket attack on the US embassy. In a restaurant in the city, where diners did not react to the initial sounds of the blasts, a witness said he saw detonations caused by the embassy’s air defences intercepting projectiles. Another witness saw a fire on the edge of the embassy grounds from her balcony, with the blaze also reported by the security official, who said it was caused by a drone. “The embassy was the target of a drone and rocket attack,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Powerful Iran-backed armed group Kataeb Hezbollah in Iraq demanded late on Tuesday that every “foreign soldier” leave the country, its security chief said. “Iraq’s instability is due to the malicious American presence and security will not be achieved until the last foreign soldier leaves Iraqi territory,” the group’s new security chief Abou Moujahed al-Assaf said in a statement. The group – designated by Washington as a “terrorist organisation” – is part of an umbrella movement known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which has been claiming daily attacks on US interests in Iraq and the region, and which has always demanded the withdrawal of US troops from the country. Iraq was drawn into the Middle East conflicts after having long been a proxy battleground between the United States and Iran. In recent days pro-Iranian armed groups have carried out several attacks against the US embassy, located in a heavily fortified area of central Baghdad, and against an American diplomatic and logistics centre at the city’s international airport. On Monday evening into early Tuesday morning, attacks targeted the

原文链接: 南华早报