Airstrikes hit Kataib Hezbollah as US Embassy targeted in Baghdad

BAGHDAD — The U.S. Embassy inside Baghdad’s Green Zone was targeted early Saturday morning, sources told 964media, with thick smoke later seen rising from the compound.

The nature of the strike has not been determined, and the embassy has not issued an official statement. One official told AFP that a drone struck the embassy, while another said a projectile believed to be a rocket landed within the diplomatic compound.

The incident came after a tense night in Baghdad during which an airstrike targeted the home of a Popular Mobilization Forces leader in the Arasat area of central Baghdad. Authorities have not disclosed the leader’s name. AFP also reported that two strikes targeted Kataib Hezbollah, killing two of its members, including a “key figure,” according to security sources cited by the agency.

Saturday’s targeting of the U.S. Embassy and the airstrikes mark a significant escalation in the war’s reach into the Iraqi capital. Since the conflict began on Feb. 28, Iraq has found itself struck by both sides: Iran-aligned factions have launched repeated attacks on U.S. and coalition targets across the country, while airstrikes — widely attributed to the United States and Israel — have hit PMF bases in at least seven governorates, killing dozens of fighters.

The Green Zone, a heavily fortified area along the Tigris River housing foreign embassies and Iraqi government institutions, has not been immune. Katyusha rockets targeted the zone earlier in the war. A position with Italian military personnel in Erbil and a joint French-Peshmerga base near Makhmur were also struck in the last week, killing a French soldier — the first Western military fatality of the conflict.

Iraq’s national security adviser and foreign ministry have repeatedly pledged to protect diplomatic missions, and Prime Minister Sudani has condemned attacks on foreign compounds. Those assurances have so far done little to stop them.

Iran-aligned Iraqi armed factions operating under the umbrella of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq have claimed responsibility for numerous drone and rocket attacks against alleged U.S.-linked targets since the war began. The coalition includes groups such as Kataib Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Kataib Imam Ali, and Harakat al-Nujaba, many of which are formally incorporated into Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces.

U.S. Central Command has directly contradicted several of the coalition’s claimed operations, including its assertion of responsibility for the downing of a KC-135 tanker that crashed in western Iraq on Thursday, killing all six crew members.

Kataib Hezbollah fighters were also killed earlier this war in strikes on a base in Jurf al-Sakhar in Babil province. PMF said Thursday that 32 airstrikes had targeted its headquarters across seven governorates since the start of the war, killing 27 fighters and wounding 50.

AFP contributed to this report