According to a correspondent with the Amman-based Al-Hadath news agency, at least 3 missiles were shot down by air defenses over the US embassy in the Green Zone, a fortified area of central Baghdad.
Video captured nearby shows air raid sirens roaring as the embassy's counter rocket, artillery and mortar (C-RAM) system, modified from the US Navy's Close-In Weapon System (CIWS), engages the incoming targets.
The US diplomatic hub in Iraq has come under increasing attack in 2020, after a US drone strike near Baghdad airport in January killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a central leader in Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces, and Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force. The Green Zone was fortified during the US occupation of Iraq between 2003 and 2011, when US forces waged a counterinsurgency war against Iraqi insurgent forces.
Hours earlier on Monday, US convoys transporting military equipment in al-Diwaniyah and Babylon Governorate came under attack by several improvised explosive devices (IEDs), though they caused no casualties, according to a statement given to Al-Noor News by the Iraqi Prime Minister's Security Media Cell.