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Drone attack against Iraqi intelligence services kills one in Baghdad Baghdad, March 21 (AFP) Mar 21, 2026 An Iraqi officer was killed on Saturday in a drone attack targeting an Iraqi intelligence services building in a residential Baghdad neighbourhood, the agency said, as the Middle East war reverberates across the country. Iraq has been unwillingly drawn into the conflict with strikes targeting Iran-backed groups, which in turn have claimed near-daily attacks on US interests, mostly in Iraq but also across the wider region. At around 10:00 am local time (0700 GMT) the Iraqi National Intelligence Service was attacked in a drone strike, said Saad Maan, head of the Iraqi government's security media unit. "An officer was martyred," the Iraqi intelligence agency said in a statement, condemning the strike as a "terrorist attack carried out by rogue elements". No group immediately claimed responsibility. An officer was also wounded in the attack, according to a security official and an emergency services source. The attack occurred in the affluent Mansour neighbourhood, during celebrations marking Eid al-Fitr. Earlier, an Iraqi security official told AFP the attack targeted a "telecommunications tower" used by the National Intelligence Services, which cooperates with US advisors deployed in Iraq as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition. He later said the targeted building houses a unit responsible for monitoring and tracking the recent strikes and rocket fire across the city. Another drone, filming the operation, crashed into a private members' sports club popular with the Iraqi elite and foreign diplomats, according to the same source. Late Saturday, a drone fell onto a home in southern Baghdad, according to a security source, who said that four people were wounded. The source said earlier in the afternoon another drone crashed into residential buildings north of the city's airport, wounding four people including a woman.
Overnight from Friday to Saturday, at least three drone attacks targeted the logistics hub, according to two security officials. However, the US embassy was not targeted for the third consecutive night, after the influential Iran-backed group Kataeb Hezbollah pledged on Thursday to observe a five-day pause on attacking it, under certain conditions. The Iran-backed group, designated by Washington as a "terrorist organisation", listed several conditions, including Israel ceasing its bombardment of the southern suburbs of Beirut. On Saturday evening, two explosions were heard by AFP journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan's capital Erbil. The target of the attack was not immediately known. The city hosts a major US consulate, while its airport houses advisors from the international anti-jihadist coalition. Separately, a fighter from the former paramilitary coalition Hashed al-Shaabi was killed late Friday in a strike on a military airfield in northern Iraq. The group blamed the attack on the US and Israel. On Thursday, 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. |
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