The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was targeted in a rocket attack over the weekend as Iraq found itself being drawn deeper into the war engulfing neighboring Iran and the Persian Gulf region more broadly.
There were no casualties in the attack Saturday night, and it was not immediately clear who was behind it. Two rockets were intercepted, a third landed on the edge of the embassy grounds and another landed inside the grounds, according to an Iraqi security official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military issues.
The attack appeared to have activated an air defense system near the embassy, according to video posted to social media and verified by The New York Times.
Iraq, which has close ties to Iran and the United States, finds itself once again caught between two allies. The Trump administration has stepped up pressure on Iraq’s leaders in recent months to distance themselves from Iran politically and to rein in Iraqi militias linked to Iran.
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani of Iraq ordered military and security commanders to pursue the perpetrators, adding that “targeting diplomatic missions and embassies operating in Iraq is an act that cannot be justified or accepted under any circumstances.” He added that such attacks affect the stability of the entire country.
Iraq is home to a number of politicians and militias with close ties to Iran. The headquarters of one of those Iraqi militias, known as Kataib Hezbollah, was hit with airstrikes on Feb. 28, the first day of the war, killing three militia members and wounding others.
Neither the U.S. Central Command nor the Israeli military claimed responsibility for the Feb. 28 strikes. But the Popular Mobilization Forces, the umbrella group of Iraq’s more than two dozen militias, blamed the “Zionist-American forces.”
Kataib Hezbollah, along with other Iran-allied armed groups in Iraq, immediately threatened to retaliate against the United States and Israel.
A leader in the group’s operations command, speaking to the Times, at the time threatened to soon begin attacking U.S. bases in response.
By Friday, the militias claimed to have carried out 28 attacks against “enemy bases and interests.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.