BAGHDAD: A United States diplomatic facility in Baghdad was attacked late Tuesday, but there are no reports of casualties and a damage assessment is underway, a U.S. embassy spokesman said in a statement on Wednesday.
Security sources told Reuters that two rockets hit near US forces stationed at Camp Victory near Baghdad airport at around 11 p.m. on Tuesday.
“On Tuesday, September 10, at approximately 11:00 p.m., an attack occurred on the Baghdad Diplomatic Services Compound, a U.S. diplomatic facility,” the U.S. embassy said in a statement.
“Fortunately, no casualties were reported and we are currently investigating the damage and its cause. Our assessment is not yet complete,” it said.
Kataib Hezbollah, one of the Iranian-backed armed groups in Iraq, said the timing of the attack was clearly intended to disrupt Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian's visit to Iraq, which began on Wednesday.
In a statement released early Wednesday, the group called on Iraqi security forces to investigate the attack and identify those responsible.
Pezeshkian, on his first foreign trip since his election in July, is expected to sign a series of bilateral agreements with Baghdad and speak with Iraqi politicians about the Gaza war and the general situation in the Middle East.
A rare regional partner of both the United States and Iran, Iraq is home to 2,500 U.S. troops and has Iranian-backed armed groups linked to its security forces.
Armed groups in Iraq allied with Iran have repeatedly attacked US troops in the Middle East since the start of the Gaza war.
