US embassy in Baghdad hit by drone, no casualties reported so far

BAGHDAD - The US embassy here was hit by a drone on Saturday, with no immediate information on casualties, a security source said.

A booby-trapped drone struck the embassy in the Green Zone at dawn, no immediate information on casualties was available and smoke was seen rising from the site, an Iraqi Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The attack followed a "US airstrike" about an hour earlier on a residential area in the Karrada neighborhood in Baghdad, which killed a senior leader and two members of Iraq's paramilitary Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), and wounded five civilians in neighboring houses, the ministry source said.

Meanwhile, in an official statement the Iraqi Joint Operations Command's Security Media Cell (SMC) condemned the dangerous and unprecedented escalation of targeting civilians and carrying out strikes within densely populated residential areas. The SMC called it an attack on human rights and said the act should be internationally classified as a crime.

On March 7, the US embassy in Baghdad was targeted by rockets, and explosions were heard, triggering its defense systems.

Over the past few days, dozens of PMF members have been killed in attacks, for which the group blamed US-Israeli operations.

The attacks came amid heightened tensions following joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran starting Feb 28, to which Iran and its regional proxies responded with attacks on Israeli and US interests across the Middle East.