- Drone struck U.S. diplomatic support center near Baghdad airport.
- No injuries reported; personnel sheltered during incident.
- Five of six drones reportedly intercepted before reaching compound.
- Attack linked to Iran-aligned militia amid escalating regional conflict.
A drone attack occurred on a large U.S diplomatic facility in Iraq on Tuesday during the ongoing air campaign by the U.S and Israel against Iran, but nobody was hurt and all occupants of the facility were located, according to an official of the U.S and an internal alert issued by the State Department was also examined by Reuters.
The drone struck Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center, which is situated close to Baghdad international airport and approximated a guard tower, the internal alert indicated. The situation in the compound required personnel to take cover and hide when the incident occurred.
Another alert later confirmed that all the people at the facility had been accounted and one can presume that minimal damage was caused by the strike.
"The Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center was not a random target. It is the largest US diplomatic facility outside the embassy compound, and hitting it even with one drone getting through sends a message that no American installation in Iraq is beyond reach of the Islamic Resistance."
The White House and the State Department immediately omitted to comment on the incident when contacted to do so.
Several Drones Reportedly Dropped
The initial report in the Washington Post indicated the attack which indicated that there was a total of six drones that were launched against the compound, five of which were intercepted prior to reaching their targets.
Reports have been quoted in the report that the strike could have been done by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which is a coalition of Iran led armed group present in the country.
The government of Iraq denounced the attacks around Iraqi military installations, without mentioning explicitly the destruction of the U.S. diplomatic mission.
The (Iraqi) Ministry of Defense emphasizes that they will never be an observer. Instead it will openly challenge and go after all concerned persons, the ministry said in a statement that the Washington Post quoted.
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The attack underscores the increasing regional spillover of the dispute between the United States and Iran and Israel that commenced on February 28 with massive attacks on Iranian targets.
Escalation of the region still persists
Iran has countered the campaign by launching retaliatory attacks in the Middle East in response to the campaign, attacking Israeli and Gulf state which harbors U.S. military installation.
On Tuesday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that it had launched missiles to the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which is run by the U.S. and the Al Harir base in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Other drone attacks allegedly hit an assembly of U.S. staff in Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates and the Headquarters of the Fifth Fleet of the U.S. Navy in Juffair, Bahrain.
"In a single day, Iranian-aligned forces targeted US installations in Iraq, Qatar, the UAE and Bahrain simultaneously. That is not retaliation that is a coordinated regional pressure campaign designed to stretch American air defence assets across four countries at once."
Concerned with our international energy sources, the Revolutionary Guards have also threatened to close the oil shipments in the Gulf in case of the US and Israeli attacks.
Meanwhile, both the U.S. and Israel forces unleashed what officials termed as some of the most vigorous airstrikes in the conflict on Tuesday, striking against the targets of the Iranian military complex and missile emphasizing.
U.S President Donald Trump has indicated that the campaign will help to eradicate what he termed as imminent threats to the nuclear and ballistic missile development and the financial support it offers militant organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
Iran has rejected any interest in terms of nuclear weapons and has said the strikes constituted an illegal attack on its sovereignty. It is a common assumption that Israel is the country in the Middle East that has the possession of nuclear weapons but it has never officially been stated as such.
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Civilian deaths are also another result of the conflict. According to Israeli authorities Iranian attacks have killed 11 civilians and that Iranian ambassador to the United Nations had claimed that over 1,300 civilians were now dead in the U.S.-Israeli attacks.
