Politics

Four rockets hit Baghdad’s Green Zone, violating militias’ self-declared ceasefire against US targets

Iraq’s Security Media Cell said the attack had killed one child and wounded five more people. Iraqi officials also said two Iraqi security forces were wounded.

Kurdistan United States Baghdad Green Zone Iraq Iran

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Four rockets hit Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone on Tuesday evening, the Iraqi military has said, violating a ceasefire that had been declared by Iranian-backed militias against the targeting of America’s political and military presence in Iraq.

The militias’ ceasefire, declared on Oct. 11, followed US threats of dramatic retaliation against them for their earlier attacks. Washington would close its embassy in Baghdad, move its diplomatic staff to Erbil, and launch a massive strike against them.

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For a month and a half, there were no serious attacks, but that changed on Tuesday.

“Four rockets hit the Green Zone in Baghdad, and it turned out that they were launched from the al-Amin al-Thaniyah neighborhood, Al-Alf Dar district in New Baghdad,” Iraq’s Security Media Cell wrote on Twitter.

In a follow-up statement, it said the attack had killed one child and wounded five more people. Iraqi officials also said two Iraqi security forces were wounded, the Associated Press reported.

Suadad al-Salhy, a Baghdad-based reporter, earlier reported that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was behind the Oct. 11 declaration by the Iran-aligned militias. After her report, Baghdad issued an arrest warrant against her.

The recent attack “comes just as some within the Trump administration are looking to inflict one final blow on the Iranian regime as they make their way out,” Ranj Alaaldin, a Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Director of the Carnegie Corporation’s Proxy Wars Initiative, told Kurdistan 24.

“There were no US fatalities, which ordinarily would mean the US would not respond and confine itself to Trump’s red line,” he said. “But these are extraordinary times and Iran risks provoking Trump and others within the administration who have long sought to settle decades-old scores with Iran.”

Alaaldin was referring to widespread media reports that began with a New York Times story, published on Monday, that Trump had recently asked his senior advisors whether he had options for striking Iran’s main nuclear site, following a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Iran’s uranium stockpile was now 12 times greater than that permitted under the 2015 nuclear deal, reached by the previous administration.

His advisors all cautioned strongly against that, warning it could escalate into a broader conflict.

But “Trump might still be looking” at other ways to strike Iran, the Times reported, “including militias in Iraq.”

One might think that would induce caution among Iran and its allies in Iraq, but, possibly, they understood the news to mean that Washington now hesitated about striking any Iranian-linked targets, for fear of a wider conflict.

Alternatively, the attack on the Green Zone followed shortly after the US Acting Secretary of Defense announced major troops cuts in Afghanistan and more limited troop cuts in Iraq.

Read More: US announces troops cuts in Afghanistan, Iraq, but not in Syria

Possibly, the announcement emboldened the militias.

On Nov. 11, Kata’ib Hizbollah posted a propaganda video in which it claimed the time to resume attacks on US troops was “fast approaching.”

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany

Kurdistan 24 Digital Media ,
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