Iraq: two rockets fall near the Baghdad Green Zone

By Victoria Hudson.

Two rockets fell on Tuesday near the Green security Zone in Baghdad where the US Embassy is located, said a security official reporting the second attack of the day in Iraq. The two rockets fell in the evening to the residential area of al-Jadriya, on the Green Zone border, damaging an apartment building and causing three injuries, he said. In the morning, a military base south of the capital housing soldiers of the anti-jihadist coalition led by Washington was hit by several rockets.

According to “al-Arabiya”, just before dawn Tuesday, rockets hit a military base at Besmaya, where US-led coalition troops and NATO forces are deployed alongside Iraqi troops. It is the fourth of such attack in less than a week in the country, the second producer of OPEC, hit hard by the fall in oil prices and tensions between the Americans and Iranians, its two main allies.

Following the resignation in December of the government of Adel Abdel Mahdi under pressure from a popular protest movement launched in October, a candidate, Mohammed Allawi had been nominated to form a new government but had thrown in the towel in the face of divisions in Parliament. It is now Mr. Zorfi, 54, who has 30 days to form a cabinet and have it accepted by Parliament, then organize early elections and vote on a budget that promises to be largely in deficit. Since the end of October, 25 attacks have targeted American or coalition interests in Iraq.