Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Monday 20 May 2019

Rocket attack hits near US Embassy in Baghdad's Green Zone

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and Iran, Iraq is once again
and BASSEM MROUE vulnerable to becoming
BAGHDAD (AP) — A rocket caught up in the power
was fired into the Iraqi capi- play. An attack targeting
tal's heavily fortified Green U.S. interests in Iraq would
Zone Sunday night, land- be detrimental to the
ing less than a mile from country's recent efforts at
the sprawling U.S. Embassy, recovering and reclaiming
an Iraqi military spokesman its status in the Arab world.
said. On May 8, U.S. Secretary of
The apparent attack, State Mike Pompeo made
which Iraq's state-run news a previously unannounced
agency said did not cause trip to the Iraqi capital fol-
any casualties, came amid lowing the abrupt cancel-
heightened tensions across lation of a visit to Germany,
the Persian Gulf, after the and told Iraqi intelligence
White House ordered war- that the United States had
ships and bombers to the been picking up intelli-
region earlier this month gence that Iran is threat-
to counter an alleged, un- ening American interests in
explained threat from Iran. the Middle East, although
The U.S. also has ordered he offered no details ac-
nonessential staff out of its cording to two Iraqi offi-
diplomatic posts in Iraq. cials.
It was the first such attack A few days later, as U.S.-Ira-
since September, when nian tensions continued to
three mortar shells landed rise, the State Department
in an abandoned lot inside ordered all non-essential,
the Green Zone. non-emergency govern-
No one claimed responsibil- ment staff to leave the
ity for the attack that took country.
place after sunset when Employees of energy giant
many Baghdad residents In this Friday, May 17, 2019, photo released by the U.S. Navy, the amphibious assault ship USS Ke- ExxonMobil have also be-
were indoors breaking their arsarge sails in front of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea. gun evacuating from an
fast during the Muslim holy Associated Press oil field in the southern Iraqi
month of Ramadan. province of Basra.
Associated Press reporters backed Shiite militias. casualties. The U.S. military from Iraq in 2011 but re- On Sunday, Iraqi Oil Minister
on the east side of the Tigris Shortly afterward the rock- confirmed an explosion in turned in 2014 at the invita- Thamer al-Ghadban said in
River, opposite the Green et launcher was discov- the zone without saying tion of Iraq to help battle a statement that he sent
Zone, heard an explosion, ered by security forces in what caused it, but said the Islamic State group a letter to ExxonMobil ask-
after which alert sirens the eastern neighborhood there were no American or after it seized vast areas in ing for clarifications over
sounded briefly in Bagh- of Wihda, according to a coalition casualties. the north and west of the the evacuation, saying the
dad. security official who spoke As tensions escalate be- country, including Iraq's evacuation was because
Iraqi military spokesman on condition of anonymity tween the U.S. and Iran, second-largest city, Mosul. of "political tensions in the
Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasoul because he was not autho- there have been con- A U.S.-led coalition pro- region" and not related to
told The Associated Press rized to speak to the media. cerns that Baghdad could vided crucial air support security.
that a Katyusha rocket fell The official also said the once again get caught in as Iraqi forces regrouped He added that the evacu-
near the statue of the Un- roads leading to the Green the middle , just as it is on and drove IS out in a costly ation of the oil giant's for-
known Soldier, less than a Zone were closed briefly the path to recovery. The three-year campaign. Ira- eign employees was "unac-
mile from the U.S. Embassy. for security reasons before country hosts more than nian-backed militias fought ceptable and unjustified."
He said the military was they were reopened as 5,000 U.S. troops, and is alongside U.S.-backed Iraqi Al-Ghadban said he would
investigating the cause normal. home to powerful Iranian- troops against IS, gain- be holding a meeting with
but that the rocket was Iraq's state-run news agen- backed militias, some of ing outsized influence and ExxonMobil executives this
believed to have been cy said a Katyusha rocket whom want those U.S. forc- power. week over the evacuation,
fired from east Baghdad. crashed inside the Green es to leave. Now, amid an escalating adding that their departure
The area is home to Iran- Zone without causing any American forces withdrew conflict between the U.S. was "temporary."q