The U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad’s Green Zone. (Photo by Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images)

(Update: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Iraq’s prime minister in a phone call Monday that “continued assaults by Iran’s armed groups” against U.S. facilities “demonstrate a wanton disregard for Iraqi sovereignty and a failure to rein in these dangerous armed groups,” according to State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus.)

(CNSNews.com) – Several rockets targeted the U.S. Embassy in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on Sunday evening, with some reportedly hitting the building itself for the first time in years.

The Iraq Security Media Cell, which falls under the office of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, reported that five Katyusha rockets had landed the city’s international “Green Zone,” causing no casualties.

The AFP news agency cited a security source as saying that three of the rocket launches achieved a “direct hit.” Security officials were also quoted as saying that the mission’s dining hall was struck.

A spokesman for U.S. Central Command said it was aware of the attack and that all Department of Defense personnel “are accounted for,” referring further queries to the State Department

The Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve – the U.S.-led international anti-ISIS coalition – also referred queries to the State Department, where a spokesperson, speaking on background, did not provide details of the exact location of the rocket strikes.

“We call on the government of Iraq to fulfill its obligations to protect our diplomatic facilities,” the spokesperson said. “Since September there have been over 14 attacks by Iran and Iranian-supported militias on U.S. personnel in Iraq.”

“The security situation remains tense and Iranian-backed armed groups remain a threat. So, we remain vigilant,” the spokesperson said. “We will not comment further on the security situation in Baghdad.”

Late last month, the embassy compound came under attack from Iran’s Qods Force-backed militiamen and their supporters. They were angered by U.S. airstrikes targeting one of the militias, Katai’b Hezbollah (KH), in retaliation for a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base which killed an American contractor.

The attack on the embassy prompted the U.S. to deploy troop reinforcements from Kuwait, and on January 3 tensions heightened dramatically when a U.S. military drone strike killed Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani and senior KH leader, Abu Mahdi al Mohandas.

The Iranian regime vowed vengeance, as did KH and other Iranian proxies in Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon. The first revenge strike came in the form of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) firing ballistic missiles at two Iraqi bases where U.S. troops are stationed.

More are expected, and five days ago three Katyusha rockets landed in the Green Zone, near the U.S. Embassy, causing no casualties or damage.

Reacting to the latest rocket attack, Abdul Mahdi on Sunday condemned the incident, warning of potential “serious repercussions.”

“Once again, aggression against a foreign diplomatic mission is repeated, with a number of Katyusha rockets falling inside the U.S. Embassy campus,” he said in a statement in his capacity as commander in chief of the armed forces. “We deplore the continuation of these condemned and outlawed acts that weaken the state and undermine its sovereignty and the sanctity of diplomatic missions on its soil.”

Abdul Mahdi said such incidents threaten to damage the nation’s interests and could “drag Iraq into a battlefield.”

He noted that it comes at a time when the government has begun measures to implement a decision by Iraq’s parliament to demand the withdrawal of foreign forces from the country.

Abdul Mahdi reiterated the government’s commitment to protecting all diplomatic missions, and called on “all benevolent and responsible forces … to stop such actions and expose their perpetrators and hold them responsible for marching the country into an unimaginable consequence.”

‘We don’t think we should withdraw’

Around 5,200 U.S. military personnel are based in Iraq, as part of the global coalition fighting ISIS. The killing of Soleimani and Mohandas prompted a non-binding vote in parliament for the government to order the departure of all foreign forces.

On Friday thousands of Iraqis marched in Baghdad demanding the troops leave. Unrelated mass protests targeting the Iraqi government and calling for a system overhaul and early elections have been underway since October, with hundreds of protestors killed over that period.

On Thursday the administration’s special envoy to the global coalition to defeat ISIS, James Jeffrey, told reporters at the State Department that the U.S. was not interested in talking to the Iraqis about troop withdrawal in isolation from the broader bilateral relationship.

“We have said that we’re not interested in talking about withdrawal because we don’t think we should withdraw,” he said. “However, at the end of the day, this is obviously an Iraqi decision on the future of the American and the coalition presence.”

But, he continued, “any conversations that the Iraqis want to have with us about the United States in Iraq we believe should and must cover the entire gamut of our relationship, which goes way beyond our forces, goes way beyond security, which is far greater than just our forces there and just the fight against [ISIS].”

“It’s the long-term re-equipping of the Iraqi military forces,” Jeffrey said. “It’s the regional agenda. It’s our diplomatic support of Iraq, our financial, our monetary.”



