The U.S. embassy in Afghanistan has come under its most intense drone and rocket attack since the war with Iran began.
Explosions were heard in Baghdad early on Tuesday, as footage verified by CNN appears to show air defense systems firing at a projectile around 2,000 feet from the U.S. embassy in the Iraqi capital.
It comes as Iran’s retaliation against the U.S. and its allies in the Middle East continues, after President Donald Trump dropped the first bombs on February 28. His actions kicked off a multi-billion-dollar war that has already claimed the lives of thousands, including 13 U.S. service members, and has spilled out into the region and global economy.
Reuters reports that rockets and at least five drones were involved in the attack, which came from areas around the city.
The news wire reported Iraqi security sources said the attack was the most intense they had experienced since the fighting began almost three weeks ago.
Footage appears to show Counter Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar systems, known as C-RAM, tracer bullets firing into the night sky, sending people on a soccer pitch running for cover as hell breaks loose above.
A witness told Reuters that they had seen two of the drones being shot down, while a third had exploded inside the embassy compound, with smoke seen rising afterwards.
According to The Daily Mail, two U.S. officials said that no one had been hurt in the attack and that no personnel in the city had been injured at the time of writing.
Al-Jazeera reports that a separate air strike on a house used by an Iran-backed group in Baghdad’s Jadriyah district had killed four.
It came just hours after Reuters also reported that Iraq’s interior ministry said that a drone had hit the city’s Al-Rasheed hotel in the fortified Green Zone, where government buildings are located.
The U.S. embassy was also hit by explosives on Saturday morning, according to Iraqi security forces. Smoke was seen rising from it before figures were spotted on the roof. The Associated Press reported that a helipad was hit inside the compound.
Trump has endured a chastening setback so far this week, as numerous allies refuse to wade in by his side in the fight against Iran.
Sources told Axios that a request for military support to help open the Strait of Hormuz—a vital oil shipping channel off Iran’s west coast—had been brutally rebuffed.
He is said to have asked the U.K., France, Japan, Canada, and China for help, all of which said no.
Trump has since said he is “not happy” with the U.K. and its Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, and has warned that a failure to help out could weaken the NATO alliance.
Trump is said to have tried to schmooze Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, but to no avail. On Monday, Starmer said, “While taking the necessary action to defend ourselves and our allies, we will not be drawn into the wider war.”
The fighting means that a high-stakes visit to China this month has also been cancelled. “There’s no tricks to it either,” Trump said. “It’s very simple. We’ve got a war going on. I think it’s important that I be here,” he said, despite Congress having not formally declared war.
In a security alert on Monday, U.S. consular services in Iraq warned citizens to leave the country.
“Iran-aligned terrorist militias have encouraged and conducted attacks on U.S. citizens and targets associated with the United States throughout Iraq, including the Iraqi Kurdistan Region,” it said. “U.S. citizens should leave Iraq now.”
