3 rockets land near US embassy in Iraq's Baghdad

Three Katyusha rockets landed Sunday near the US embassy at the heavily fortified Green Zone in central the Iraqi capital Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said. 

The attack took place in the afternoon when the three rockets landed near the US embassy in the Green Zone, which houses some of the main Iraqi government offices and some foreign embassies, the source said.
 
There were no immediate reports on casualties, added the source.
 
The Green Zone has been frequently targeted by insurgents' mortar and rocket attacks. The roughly 10-square-km zone is located on the west bank of the Tigris River, which bisects the Iraqi capital.
 
The US embassy and other Iraqi military bases, where US troops stationed, have been frequently targeted by insurgent mortar and rocket attacks.
 
The attack came hours after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived in Baghdad for talks with Iraqi leaders.
 
The Iraqi-US relations have witnessed a tension since January 3 when a US drone struck a convoy at Baghdad airport, which killed Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces.
 
The US airstrike prompted the Iraqi parliament on January 5 to pass a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in the country.
 
More than 5,000 US troops have been deployed in Iraq to support the Iraqi forces in the battles against the Islamic State militants, mainly providing training and advising to the Iraqi forces.

(Source: Xinhua)