Two Katyusha rockets fired on Wednesday at the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, said a source from the Iraqi Interior Ministry. The attack took place before midnight when the two rockets landed in the Green Zone, which houses some of the main Iraqi government offices and the U.S. embassy, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. There were no immediate reports about casualties, but sirens were heard in the zone, the source said. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, as the military bases housing U.S. troops across Iraq and the U.S. embassy have been frequently targeted by mortar and rocket attacks. The attack came as the Iraqi officials are preparing for a round of strategic dialogue with the U.S.
side on Thursday to discuss the relations between Baghdad and Washington as well as the future of the U.S. forces in Iraq. The Iraqi-U.S. relations have witnessed a tension since Jan. 3 when a U.S. drone struck a convoy at Baghdad airport, which killed Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq’s paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces. The U.S. airstrike prompted the Iraqi parliament on Jan. 5 to pass a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in the country. More than 5,000 U.S. troops have been deployed in Iraq to support the Iraqi forces in the battles against the Islamic State militants, mainly providing training and advising to the Iraqi forces.
