Baghdad’s Green Zone, the heavily fortified district housing foreign embassies and government buildings, has been sealed off by Iraqi military forces following reports of heavy gunfire near the US Embassy compound.
A familiar pattern of escalation
In March, missiles struck a helipad inside the US Embassy compound itself. That March attack was part of a broader string of assaults that included drone strikes and rocket attacks on the compound. Some of those incoming threats were intercepted by air defense systems, but the ones that got through left visible flames and smoke rising from the embassy grounds.
No injuries were reported during the March incidents. The Green Zone is a roughly four-square-mile enclave in central Baghdad, ringed by blast walls and checkpoints, originally built to house the Coalition Provisional Authority after the 2003 invasion.
Who’s behind the attacks
