The US Diplomatic Services Compound in Baghdad was attacked late on Tuesday but no casualties were reported, the embassy spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday. The spokesperson said the embassy was assessing the damage and its cause and would provide further information when its assessment was over. Security sources told news agency Reuters two rockets had fallen at around 11 p.m. on Tuesday near US forces stationed near Baghdad airport at the Camp Victory base.
"At approximately 23:00 on Tuesday, September 10, there was an attack at the Baghdad Diplomatic Services Compound, a U.S. diplomatic facility," the U.S. embassy statement said.
"Fortunately, there are no reported casualties, and we are assessing the damage and its cause. Our assessment is ongoing," it said.
Kataib Hezbollah, one of Iraq's Iran-backed armed factions, said the timing of the attack was clearly designed to disrupt a visit to Iraq by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian that began on Wednesday.
The group called on Iraqi security forces in a statement issued early on Wednesday to investigate the attack and to determine who was responsible. Pezeshkian, a relative moderate who was elected in July, met Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani at the start of a three-day visit that Tehran and Baghdad said would include the signing of a number of agreements and discussion of the Gaza war and the situation in the Middle East.
"The expansion of bilateral ties as well as regional and international issues such as the ongoing crimes of the Zionist regime (Israel) against the oppressed people of Palestine and the need to stop the war and genocide in Gaza, will be discussed," Pezeshkian's office said in a statement.
Iraq hosts several Iran-aligned parties and armed groups, as Tehran has steadily increased its sway in the major oil producer since a US-led invasion toppled its enemy Saddam Hussein in 2003.
A rare partner of both the United States and Iran, Iraq hosts 2,500 US troops and has Iran-backed armed factions linked to its security forces. It has suffered escalating tit-for-tat attacks since the Israel-Hamas war began in Gaza in October. The Iraqi prime minister's media office said the two countries had signed 14 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) in different fields including trade, sports, agriculture, cultural cooperation, education, media, communications and tourism.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Wednesday that Tehran and Baghdad have various areas of cooperation "including political, regional ... and security issues", Iranian state media reported.
Pezeshkian visited a monument for Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani who was killed, in a U.S. drone attack in 2020 in Iraq, Iranian state media reported.
(With inputs from agency)
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