ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Two Katyusha rockets hit Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone on Sunday night just moments after Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Tafwiq Allawi announced he was unable to form a new government due to “political pressure”.
“The Katyusha rockets hit the Green Zone without causing human losses,” the Iraqi Defense Ministry Security Media Cell said in a statement.
The rocket launch site was discovered near a market in the capital’s Ziyouna area just 10 km east of the Green Zone.
The ministry said further details would be provided soon.
Security sources told Rudaw the rockets struck near the sprawling US embassy compound, but did not cause material damage.
The Green Zone hosts several Iraqi government ministries, the federal parliament, and foreign diplomatic missions.
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 two weeks ago.
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 have accused 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.
