Among the chaos caused by petrochemical production sanctions placed on Iran, the death of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and the cries of Iraqi citizens for U.S. involvement to end in their country, a salvo of missiles struck the U.S. embassy in Baghdad on Jan. 26. Four rockets were fired at the fortified “Green Zone.” One of the rockets hit their target with a security source telling AFP news that one of the missiles hit the cafeteria during dinner time. Three people were injured in the attack. As of Jan. 27, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack. 

  “We stress that the recent rocket bombing against the evil embassy in Baghdad is not the action of the Iraqi resistance factions, because we have stressed earlier that the resistance factions will not target the embassies and the diplomatic missions in Iraq,” stated the commander of Asaib al-Haq, an Iranian-backed militia group Jawad Al-Tilaybawi according the New York Times

 Iraqi officials were quick to condemn the attack with Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi of Iraq stating, “We denounce the continuation of these outlawed actions that have the goal of weakening the Iraqi state and violating its sovereignty and the sanctity of diplomatic missions on its soil.” Mahdi continued by stating that military forces are to be dispatched in order to “search and investigate to prevent such attacks.” 

The missile attacks come at a time of great upheaval for Iraqi-U.S. relations. Months of anti-government protest have been calling for a complete revamping of the Iraqi government. Over 500 protestors have been killed since the protests began in October 2019, according Al-Jezera After the killing of Solemani by U.S. a drone strike, these protests took a distinctly anti-U.S. turn. 

 Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr organized anti-U.S. protestors, according The New York Times One protester was killed when security forces removed a sit-in camp, according to Al-Jazeera. Moqtada’s campaign was successful on the domestic front with the protests leading to the Iraqi parliament passing a resolution to remove all foreign troops from the country on Jan 5,  reported Al-Jazera.