Drones, rockets breach US Embassy in Baghdad

Iran-backed militias have launched the most intense assault on the United States Embassy in Baghdad since the outbreak of the US-Israel war with Iran, breaching the compound’s defences with a drone and triggering explosions and fire in the heart of the Iraqi capital’s heavily fortified Green Zone.

Rockets and at least five drones were launched at the US embassy in Baghdad early on Tuesday from multiple positions around the city, according to Iraqi security sources, who described the attack as the most intense since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, which began on February 28.

The embassy’s C-RAM air defence system intercepted two of the incoming drones, but a third managed to crash inside the compound, sparking fire and smoke that rose visibly above the Green Zone. Separately, a security official confirmed that air defences also thwarted a simultaneous attack involving four rockets directed at the embassy.

The assault did not stop at the embassy walls. An explosive drone also struck the rooftop of the Al-Rasheed Hotel also known as the Royal Tulip Hotel, a luxury establishment inside the Green Zone that serves as home to several foreign diplomatic missions, including those of the European Union and Saudi Arabia, as well as foreign employees of international oil companies. Iraq’s Interior Ministry initially described the projectile as unspecified before clarifying it was a drone, adding that the incident caused no casualties or material damage. Witnesses at the scene reported fire breaking out on the hotel rooftop.

The strikes were accompanied by deadly violence elsewhere in the capital. A separate strike killed four people at a house in Baghdad’s al-Jadiriyah neighbourhood, reportedly used as a headquarters by Iran-backed Popular Mobilisation Forces. Initial reports indicated two of the dead were Iranian advisers to Tehran-aligned groups.

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Iraqi security forces were deployed across parts of the capital, and Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone which houses government buildings and diplomatic missions was closed following the attacks.

The barrage reflects a rapidly escalating cycle of retaliation. On Monday, the PMF said air strikes killed at least eight of its fighters in the Iraqi town of Al-Qaim near the Syrian border. Hours later, Iran-aligned Kataib Hezbollah announced the death of its senior commander and spokesperson, Abu Ali al-Askari, identified by a security source as Abu Ali al-Amiri who was killed in a separate strike on Baghdad on Saturday.

The attacks have also extended to critical infrastructure. Two drones targeted the southern Majnoon oil field, which had already paused production with one hitting a telecommunications tower and a second targeting the offices of a US firm operating at the site.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, serving as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, denounced the attacks on the oil fields and other civilian locations, calling them a threat to national stability. He has also sacked a number of senior intelligence officers in Baghdad and Nineveh in an attempt to curb attacks inside Iraq both those carried out by the US and Israel against the PMF and its factions, and those by the factions themselves against civilian locations including Baghdad’s airport.

The US Embassy had not issued a public statement at the time of filing this report, and no group had immediately claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attacks.