Iraqi capital Baghdad is rocked by powerful explosions near the US embassy US-Israel war over Iran news

The attacks are part of an escalating cycle of violence between US forces and Iraqi groups aligned with Tehran.

Iraq’s capital Baghdad has been rocked by a series of explosions near the United States Embassy in the city’s heavily fortified Green Zone, as the rapidly escalating US-Israeli war over Iran continues to spill over the border.

“We have drone activity here in Baghdad’s Green Zone, where the US embassy is located … and we understand that two drones (were) intercepted, while the third one disappeared from radar,” Al Jazeera’s Aseed Baig reported from the capital on Tuesday night.

At least three explosive drones targeted a US diplomatic facility near Baghdad International Airport and activated C-RAM air defense systems, security sources told Reuters news agency.

Baig said they heard a series of loud explosions and debris fell across the city, which “damaged windows and infrastructure” at the university compound in the neighborhood of al-Dura.

Baig said, citing Iraqi officials, that the fire broke out near the Central Bank in al-Jadriya district, where “debris of an aerial object” was lying near the building’s main gates.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from Tuesday’s attack, which is part of an escalation in violence between US forces and Iraqi armed groups aligned with Tehran.

The violence came a day after four people were killed in an airstrike on a building used as the headquarters of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which includes several groups affiliated with Iran. The building reportedly hosted Iranian advisers.

The PMF, known in Arabic as Hashd al-Shaabi, is an umbrella group of mostly Shia paramilitary factions established in 2014 to counter the lightning advance of the ISIL (ISIS) group and now formally integrated into Iraq’s state security forces.

Baig said the attacks demonstrate the “constant threat” Iraqis face. “There’s really no letting up,” he said. “But the real question is that some of these drones are being launched from Baghdad itself, and that raises serious security questions.”

Baig said the attacks took place in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, where the headquarters of an anti-Iranian Kurdish group were targeted by drones.

He reported that the US had carried out an airstrike against a tribal meeting in Anbar province and that debris fell on agricultural land near the city of Mosul.