US embassy urges Americans to leave Iraq

The US embassy in Baghdad was hit by an attack on Saturday following strikes that killed three members of a powerful Iran-backed group in the capital, security sources said.

Iraq, long a proxy battleground between the United States and Iran, was quickly dragged into the Middle East war triggered by US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.

A cloud of black smoke rose above the US diplomatic mission shortly after the sound of explosions on Saturday morning.

Two security officials said that the embassy complex was struck by a drone.

It is the second time the US embassy has come under attack in Baghdad since the start of the war.

Later on Saturday, the embassy issued an updated security alert urging citizens to “leave now” but telling them not to come to the embassy in the capital or the consulate general in Erbil “in light of the ongoing risk of missiles, drones, and rockets in Iraqi airspace.”

“Iran-aligned terrorist militias have repeatedly attacked the International Zone” in Baghdad, it said on X.

“There have also been repeated attacks in the area around the Erbil International Airport and the Consulate General,” it added.

Several Tehran-backed armed groups, which Washington has designated “terrorist organizations,” allied under an umbrella movement known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, have claimed daily drone and rocket attacks against US bases in Iraq and the region.

Since the start of the war, several attacks targeting members of those groups across Iraq have been blamed on the US and Israel.