Drone attack against Iraqi intelligence services in Baghdad: Official

BAGHDAD - A drone attack targeted Iraqi intelligence services in an upscale residential neighbourhood in central Baghdad on the morning of March 21, a senior security official said.

“A drone targeted the headquarters of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service in the Mansour district” at around 10am local time (3pm, Singapore time), General Saad Maan, head of the Iraqi government’s security media unit, said in a brief statement.

An Iraqi security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said earlier the attack targeted a “telecommunications building” with the National Intelligence Service, which cooperates with US advisors in Iraq as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition.

Another drone, filming the operation, crashed into a private members sports club popular with Iraqi elite and foreign diplomats, according to the same source.

Iraq has been unwillingly drawn into the regional conflict triggered by the US-Israel attack on its neighbour Iran on Feb 28.

Strikes have targeted Iran-backed groups, which in turn have claimed near-daily attacks on US interests, mostly in Iraq but also across the wider region.

A fighter from the Hashed al-Shaabi former paramilitary coalition was killed late on March 20 in a strike on a military airfield in northern Iraq. The group blamed the attack on the US and Israel.

On March 19, the Pentagon acknowledged for the first time that combat helicopters had carried out strikes against pro-Iran armed groups in Iraq during the latest conflict.

Overnight from March 20 to 21, at least three drone attacks targeted a US diplomatic and logistics hub that houses US military personnel at Baghdad International Airport, according to two security officials.

One of the officials said that a fire broke out near the base following the third attack. AFP