Drone strikes luxury hotel in Baghdad’s Green Zone, home to US embassy

2026.03.16 23:50 The Royal Tulip Al-Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad’s Green Zone after a reported drone attack, in Iraq on Monday. Photo: Reuters A drone sparked a fire on Monday at a luxury hotel frequented by foreign diplomats in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone shortly before air defences foiled a rocket attack at the US embassy. The attacks came soon after the powerful Tehran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah group announced that its senior security commander Abu Ali al-Askari had been killed, without providing details on the circumstances of his death. Iraq’s interior ministry said initially that “a projectile fell on the roof of the al-Rasheed Hotel”, before clarifying that it was a drone. It did not specify whether the building itself was the target. “The incident caused no casualties or material damage,” it added. A street leading to the hotel, which hosts a few diplomatic missions, was blocked by a large security deployment, with firefighters and ambulances present, according to an Agence France-Presse correspondent. Witnesses saw a fire break out on the roof of the hotel inside the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to diplomatic missions, including the US embassy, and government institutions. Just after the hotel incident, a loud blast was heard in Baghdad, as air defences were seen intercepting an attack over the US embassy, an Agence France-Presse journalist said. A security official said “air defences thwarted an attack with four rockets” on the embassy. A plume of smoke rises over the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Monday after a loud explosion was heard in the city. Photo: AFP Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, head of the armed forces, denounced the attacks – including a strike on a southern oilfield – calling them threats to his country’s “security and stability”. He promised security services would “hunt down the perpetrators of these acts and bring them to justice immediately”, according to a statement from his spokesman, Sabah al-Numan. “These criminal acts have se

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