BAGHDAD (AFP) – Two rockets targeted Baghdad’s ultra-secure Green Zone that houses the U.S. embassy early Sunday, Iraq’s security forces said in a statement.
“The Green Zone in Baghdad was the target of two Katyusha rockets. The first was shot down in the air by C-RAM defense batteries, the second fell in a square, damaging two vehicles,” the statement said.
A security source told AFP that the shot down rocket fell near the U.S. embassy, while the second came down roughly 500 meters (1640 ft) away.
Previously, the source told AFP that two rockets had been shot down near the U.S. embassy.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack.
In recent months, dozens of rocket assaults or drone bomb attacks have targeted U.S. troops and interests in Iraq.
On Thursday, a bomb explosion struck a supply convoy for the U.S. military in Iraq’s central province of Babil.
Iraqi Ashab al-Kahf (Companions of the Cave) resistance group later claimed responsibility for the blast, which was the latest in a series of attacks targeting U.S. forces in Iraq in recent months.
The latest rocket salvo comes after the country this week announced the end of U.S. “combat mission” on its territory.
But roughly 2,500 American soldiers and 1,000 coalition soldiers deployed in Iraq will remain in the nation to purportedly “pursue a role of training, advice and assistance”.
Iraqis people and politicians are calling for the departure of all U.S. forces stationed in the country. Iraqi lawmakers has approved a bill that requires the government to end the presence of all foreign military forces led by the U.S.
The attack also coincides with the 10th anniversary of the departure of U.S. troops from Iraq on December 18, 2011, after the invasion in 2003.