TEHRAN – On Saturday morning, explosions rock Baghdad and several other areas as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and U.S. occupation forces trade a series of attacks.

The United States embassy in Baghdad has come under attack. The Islamic Resistance reportedly targeted the embassy’s air defense system and also hit the helicopter landing pad within the diplomatic compound. 

Witnesses reported columns of smoke rising from inside the embassy complex following the incident. In response, Iraqi security forces sealed off the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad.
It is the second time the U.S. embassy has come under attack in Baghdad since the start of the war on Iran on Feb. 28.
Earlier the same day, three people were killed in a reported U.S. strike on the residence of a member of a resistance faction in the Iraqi capital. The attack, reportedly carried out by a drone, prompted Iraqi security forces to establish a cordon around the site to assess the damage and secure the area.

Additional drone attacks were reported across Baghdad. A transport truck was targeted in one part of the city, while other strikes were reported in two additional districts of the capital. Residents also reported hearing explosions in eastern Baghdad as U.S. aircraft flew intensively over the area.

In northern Iraq, another U.S. strike reportedly hit the Sayyid al-Shuhada Cultural Complex located in the Nineveh Plain east of Mosul.

The Iraqi Joint Operations Command condemned the targeting of civilians and residential neighborhoods, describing it as a “dangerous and unprecedented escalation.” 

The command stated that attacks inside densely populated areas represent a clear violation of humanitarian values and international agreements. It stressed that any justification used to target individuals in residential areas is legally and morally invalid, warning that turning civilian neighborhoods into battlegrounds constitutes a complete crime aimed at intimidating innocent people.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s Central Command (CENTCOM) acknowledged on Friday that all six crew members aboard a U.S. aerial refueling aircraft had been killed after it crashed in western Iraq. The aircraft, a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, went down a day earlier. U.S. officials initially claimed the crash was not caused by hostile or friendly fire.

However, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq said it had shot down the aircraft using what it described as “appropriate weapons.” The group also claimed responsibility for targeting a second KC-135 aircraft over western Iraq, saying it was damaged but managed to escape and make an emergency landing at a military airfield.

In response to ongoing U.S. strikes, explosions were also reported at a U.S. military base in Erbil, the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. According to local reports, at least four blasts were heard inside the base, suggesting continued attacks on American military facilities in the country.

The violence follows earlier incidents this week. On Friday, shelling struck the headquarters of the 40th Brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Kirkuk. Previously, a U.S. airstrike early Thursday targeted positions of the same force between Akashat and al-Qaim in Anbar province, killing at least 22 PMF soldiers.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq said its military operations against “enemy bases in Iraq and the region” would continue. The group stated that its actions are both retaliation for the deaths of Iraqi fighters and, in its words, carried out as a religious duty and in revenge for the martyrdom of Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“In fact, yesterday (Friday), they issued a statement putting $100,000 as a reward to anyone who provides information leading to any U.S. diplomatic personnel inside the country,” Al Jazeera correspondent said, adding that some of the personnel were “taking shelter in civilian houses”.