WASHINGTON/TEHRAN/BAGHDAD – The US embassy here was hit by a drone on Saturday, with no immediate information on casualties, a security source said.
A booby-trapped drone struck the embassy in the Green Zone at dawn, no immediate information on casualties was available and smoke was seen rising from the site, an Iraqi Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The attack followed a “US airstrike” about an hour earlier on a residential area in the Karrada neighborhood in Baghdad, which killed a senior leader and two members of Iraq’s paramilitary Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), and wounded five civilians in neighboring houses, the ministry source said.
Meanwhile, in an official statement, the Iraqi Joint Operations Command’s Security Media Cell (SMC) condemned the dangerous and unprecedented escalation of targeting civilians and carrying out strikes within densely populated residential areas. The SMC called it an attack on human rights and said the act should be internationally classified as a crime.
On March 7, the US embassy in Baghdad was targeted by rockets, and explosions were heard, triggering its defense systems.
Over the past few days, dozens of PMF members have been killed in attacks, for which the group blamed US-Israeli operations.
The attacks came amid heightened tensions following joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran starting Feb 28, to which Iran and its regional proxies responded with attacks on Israeli and US interests across the Middle East.
US military campaign
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that the US military campaign in Iran will last “as long as necessary.”
When asked by reporters how long the war will last, he said: “I can’t tell you that.”
“I won’t give you a time, but we are way ahead of schedule,” he added.
Kharg Island
Trump said Friday that the US military carried out bombing raids against military targets on Iran’s Kharg Island, a key oil export hub that handles most of the country’s crude shipments.
Via his Truth Social account, Trump also said he had decided not to strike the island’s oil infrastructure, although he would change his mind “should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the free and safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.”
Citing experts, CNN reported that any attempt to capture Kharg Island would require a substantial number of ground troops, something the Trump administration has so far been reluctant to commit.
Kharg Island lies in the Persian Gulf about 25 km off Iran’s coast and accounts for about 90 percent of the country’s crude exports.
Military targets in Iran’s Kharg Island have been “totally obliterated” in US bombing raids, Trump said Friday on Truth Social.
Strait of Hormuz
The United States will not allow shipping in the Strait of Hormuz “to be contested” by Iran, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday.
There is no clear evidence that Iran has placed mines in the Strait of Hormuz, he said at a news briefing.
He said the United States is planning for Iran’s various measures and “that’s not a strait we’re gonna allow to remain contested.”
50,000 US troops involved in strikes on Iran
More than 50,000 US service members are involved in the military strikes against Iran, a senior Pentagon official said Friday.
Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson claimed “those forces have established control over air and sea domains and struck thousands of identified Iranian targets, demonstrating operational dominance,” according to a post on X by the US Department of War.
The US Central Command on Thursday reported about 6,000 targets struck, with more than 60 ships and 30 minelayers damaged or destroyed, the post added.
210 students and teachers killed in Iran
US and Israeli military strikes have killed 210 students and teachers in Iran and injured another 160 since Feb 28, Iran’s Fars News Agency reported on Saturday, citing the country’s education minister.