Mortar Bomb event in Al-Anbar, Ain al-Asad area, Iraq on Sun 10th December 2023

The US embassy in Baghdad came under mortar fire on Friday as US assets in Iraq and Syria continue to be targeted over US support for Israel’s onslaught in Gaza.

According to Reuters, seven mortar rounds landed in the sprawling embassy. US officials said there was minor damage but no casualties. The incident was the first time the embassy, located in Baghdad’s Green Zone, came under attack since October 7.

On the same day, there were at least five other attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria. Three targeted US forces in Syria, and two hit the Ain al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq. An umbrella group of Iraqi Shia militias, the Islamic Resistance of Iraq, claimed a total of 11 attacks on US forces on Friday, but not all of them were confirmed.

There have been more than 80 attacks on US forces in the two countries since they started on October 17, and the US has launched several rounds of airstrikes against Shia militias.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani about the attack on the US embassy and the general tensions in the region. Austin singled out two Iran-aligned Shia militias that he said were responsible for most of the attacks, Kataib Hezbollah and Harakat al-Nujaba.

Al-Sudani had previously criticized the US for launching airstrikes in Iraq without government approval. According to a statement from his office, in the call with Austin, al-Sudani “emphasized the security services’ capability to pursue and expose those involved in attacks, cautioning against a direct response without government approval.”

Kataib Hezbollah said on Saturday that US troops in Iraq would continue to be targeted until they leave the country. “Our jihadist operations against the American occupation will continue until the last of its soldiers are removed from the land of Iraq,” a spokesman for the group said, according to Rudaw.