BAGHDAD (AP) — A nighttime rocket attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad injured one personnel member and caused some material damage, staffers there said Monday.

The two staff members, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, did not specify the injured person’s nationality or the severity of their wounds. They said the rocket slammed into a restaurant inside the embassy compound.

The U.S. Embassy is within the Iraqi capital’s Green Zone, and has been a flashpoint amid wider regional tensions between the U.S. and Iran, which have played out inside Iraq in recent weeks. Iraqi supporters of an Iran-backed militia stormed the embassy compound on Dec. 31, smashing the main door and setting fire to the reception area.

Violence between Iraqi security forces and anti-government protesters also continued to seethe overnight, with one protester shot dead in a violent crackdown in the country’s south. Unrest was also ongoing in the capital, with new clashes erupting Monday near the central Khilani Square, where security forces fired tear gas to disperse crowds.

The security forces also chased protesters and beat them.

A female anti-government protester was overpowered, dragged by the hair and pinned down by a member of the security forces outside Baghdad’s municipality building. The incident, captured by an Associated Press photographer, was a rare occurrence in the largely male-dominated front-lines of the demonstrations.

The security personnel conducted a search of the female protester and tore off a protective face mask she was wearing as a witness threw stones.

Iraq has been roiled by over four months of demonstrations criticizing government corruption, high unemployment and Iranian influence in Iraqi politics. Security forces have killed at least 500 protesters. The country is also facing a political clash over naming the next prime minister, after Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi resigned.

At least five katyusha rockets landed inside the Green Zone on Sunday, according to a U.S. military statement. It was the third rocket attack targeting the U.S. Embassy this month, and the perpetrators were not immediately known. Previous attacks caused no injuries.

There was no claim of responsibility for any of the attacks. But the U.S. has accused Iran-backed militias of targeting U.S. interests by attacking military bases housing Americans and diplomatic missions.

Abdul-Mahdi condemned the attack in a statement, asserting Iraq’s commitment to protecting diplomatic missions in the country.

In the south, a protester was killed amid a violent pre-dawn crackdown by security forces on a protest camp in the city of Nasiriyah, an activist and a medical official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Police fired live rounds to disperse crowds from a central square in Nasiriyah where protesters were staging a sit-in, prompting demonstrators to flee. The encampment site was later burned. It was not immediately clear whether security forces or unknown groups had torched it. The city has been a center of unrest since the protests began.

© 1995 – 2020 by Snopes Media Group Inc.

This material may not be reproduced without permission.

Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com

Your search did not yield any results. Your search terms may need to be revised, or we have not written an article on that topic.

One of the best tips for locating articles on our site is to avoid the use of searches that are too lengthy or specific. Therefore, the optimal search strategy is to avoid pasting specific phrases from items (such as subject lines and opening sentences) into our search engine and instead focus on selecting a few distinctive words or names to use as search terms.

If you still don’t find the item you’re looking for, please use our Submission Form to send it to us. We can’t write about it if we don’t know about it!

You are viewing an article from the collection. View the entire collection.