Days after the Trump administration ordered American diplomatic personnel to leave the United States' embassy in Baghdad, a rocket attacked the very area they were in on Sunday, The Washington Times reported. The area that was attacked was the Green Zone in the Iraq capital. It's where the U.S. embassy and the main headquarters for combating the Islamic State sat.
As of now, no casualties have been reported and no group or person has taken responsibility for the attack. Iraqi officials did, however, confirm that one rocket landed inside the diplomatic compound. Eyewitnesses say a second rocket landed inside the Green Zone but that has not been officially confirmed.
British Major General Chris Ghika, the deputy commander of the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS publicly disagreed with America's assessment earlier this week, saying there was no increased threat.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it's evident there is a growing threat from Iran but the United States is doing everything in its power to stop a war from forming.
“We’re not going to miscalculate: Our aim is not war, our aim is a change in the behavior of the Iranian leadership,” Pompeo told CNBC. “The forces that we’re putting in place, the forces that we’ve had in the region before — you know, we often have carriers in the Persian Gulf — but the president wanted to make sure that, in the event something took place, we were prepared to respond to it in an appropriate way.”
Although the U.S. wants to negotiate with Iran, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to make a stark warning: come after America and you will be defeated.
If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 19, 2019