The missile attack causes damage to the mission, according to sources, as smoke is seen rising from the building.
Posted on March 14, 2026
The US embassy in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, was hit by a missile attack that caused smoke to rise from the mission building.
An Iraqi security source told Al Jazeera on Saturday that the attack led to the destruction of part of its air defense system, without giving further details.
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A missile hit a helipad inside the US embassy in Baghdad, two security officials told the Associated Press news agency.
The projectile landed within the embassy confines after the Green Zone, the heavily fortified district in central Baghdad that houses Iraqi government institutions and foreign embassies, added the security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press.
There was no immediate comment from the US embassy in Baghdad.
Videos posted by social media users showed smoke rising from the complex after the attack.
Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed, reporting from Baghdad, said there was no immediate statement on whether there were any casualties or the exact extent of damage in the attack.
“But we understand that Iranian-aligned armed groups in Iraq have always been committed to attacking American facilities, especially the embassy,” he said, adding that they want to avenge the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the former supreme leader, who was killed, along with members of his family, in a US-Israeli airstrike at the beginning of this war.
“In fact, yesterday they issued a statement offering a $100,000 reward to anyone who provides information that leads to American diplomatic personnel inside the country,” our correspondent said, adding that some staff were “taking refuge in civilian homes.”
Second attack
It is the second time that the US embassy has been attacked in Baghdad since the start of the war.
On Friday, the embassy renewed its Level 4 security alert for Iraq, warning that Iran and Iranian-aligned militia groups have carried out attacks against American citizens, interests and infrastructure, and “may continue to attack them.”
The sprawling embassy complex, one of the largest American diplomatic facilities in the world, has been repeatedly attacked by rockets and drones in the past.
Several Tehran-backed armed groups, which Washington has designated as “terrorist organizations,” allied under an umbrella movement known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, have claimed daily drone and rocket attacks on U.S. bases in the region.
Since the start of the war, several attacks against members of those groups throughout Iraq have been attributed to the United States and Israel.
Saturday’s attack took place shortly after two attacks targeted the powerful Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah group and killed two of its members, including a “key figure”, according to security sources who spoke to the AFP news agency.
Iraq has seen attacks from both sides of the conflict: Iran and its proxies target US bases, while the US has bombed pro-Iran groups.
Iraq, long a proxy battleground between the United States and Iran, was quickly drawn into this expanding war in the Middle East triggered by the US and Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28.
