- The Washington Times - Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Sirens went off in Baghdad around midnight Wednesday and explosions were heard.

Reuters news agency reported, citing witnesses, that two blasts could be heard in the late-night hours.

Agence France-Presse, citing “security sources,” reported that two rockets had landed in the heavily-fortified zone.

Barzan Sadiq, a reporter with Kurdistan 24, posted a video on Twitter showing the U.S. Embassy sirens going off, a PA system yelling “incoming” as “two Katyusha rockets fell near #US embassy.”

The Iraqi military confirmed in a statement to Reuters and other news agencies that “two Katyusha rockets fall inside the Green Zone without causing casualties. Details to follow.”

The sirens went off a day after Iran fired more than a dozen missiles at US installations in Iraq in retaliation for the U.S. drone-strike killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s terrorist Quds Force.

Iran had said early Wednesday that those firings, barring further escalation by the U.S., was the end of its response. But the Islamist regime also has numerous proxy militias throughout the region, especially in majority-Shia Iraq.

According to ABC News, the international zone in Baghdad commonly sees rocket attacks, and there were such explosions Saturday and Sunday, in the immediate days after the death of Soleimani.

• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.

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