BAGHDAD: A drone sparked a fire on Monday at a luxury hotel frequented by foreign diplomats in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone shortly before air defenses foiled a rocket attack at the US embassy.
The attacks came shortly after the powerful Tehran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah group announced that its senior security commander Abu Ali Al-Askari had been killed, without providing details on the circumstances of his death.
Iraq’s interior ministry said initially that “a projectile fell on the roof of the Al-Rasheed Hotel,” before clarifying that it was a drone. It did not specify whether the building itself was the target.
“The incident caused no casualties or material damage,” it added.
A street leading to the hotel, which hosts a few diplomatic missions, was blocked by a large security deployment, with firefighters and ambulances present, according to an AFP correspondent.
Witnesses saw a fire break out on the roof of the hotel inside the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to diplomatic missions, including the US embassy, and government institutions.
Shortly after the hotel incident, a loud blast was heard in Baghdad, as air defenses were seen intercepting an attack over the US embassy, an AFP journalist said.
A security official told AFP “air defenses thwarted an attack with four rockets” on the embassy.
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, head of the armed forces, denounced the attacks — including a strike on a southern oil field — calling them threats to his country’s “security and stability.”
He promised security services would “hunt down the perpetrators of these acts and bring them to justice immediately,” according to a statement from his spokesman, Sabah Al-Numan.
“These criminal acts have serious repercussions for our country and undermine the government’s efforts toward reconstruction and prosperity.”
Iraq has recently regained a sense of stability following years of conflict, and was unwillingly drawn into the current Middle East war after having long been a proxy battleground between the United States and Iran.
From the outset, strikes blamed on the United States and Israel targeted Iran-backed groups, which have been claiming daily attacks on US interests in Iraq and the region.
- Fighters killed, oil attack -
Kataeb Hezbollah announced Monday “the martyrdom of Hajj Abu Ali Al-Askari,” without providing any details on how and when he was killed.
A security official told AFP that “Abu Ali Al-Askari is Abu Ali Al-Amiri, the commander who was killed in a strike on Baghdad on Saturday.”
Kataeb Hezbollah referred to Askari as the group’s security chief. He was also the spokesperson in charge of issuing all key statements in the group’s name.
Drone and rocket attacks have also targeted oil fields and facilities.
Earlier Monday, two drones targeted the southern Majnoon oil field — which had already paused production — with the oil ministry spokesperson saying that one of the drones had hit a telecommunications tower.
A security official said a second drone had targeted the offices of a US firm, operating at the site.
In a separate incident in the west, eight Iraqi fighters from a former paramilitary coalition were also killed in strikes near the country’s border with Syria.
The fighters belonged to the Hashed Al-Shaabi, also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which are now part of Iraq’s regular army.
Sabah Al-Numan, the military spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister, denounced “targeting an official force that operates under the command of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.”
“It is a blatant aggression against the sovereignty of the state,” he said.
Iran-backed groups have brigades that operate within the Hashed Al-Shaabi, but have a reputation for acting on their own.
