Two mortar rounds hit the Iraqi capital ’ s Green Zone Saturday and two rockets slammed into a base housing US troops , security sources said , a day after a deadly American strike .

The precision drone strike outside the Baghdad airport on Friday killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, top Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al -Muhandis and a clutch of other Iranian and Iraqi figures .

In Baghdad , mortar rounds on Saturday evening hit the Green Zone , the high-security enclave where the US embassy is based , security sources said.

The Iraqi military said that one projectile hit inside the zone , while another landed close to the enclave .

Sirens rang out at the US compound , sources there told AFP .

A pair of Katyusha rockets then hit the Balad airbase north of Baghdad , where American troops are based , security sources and the Iraqi military said.
Security sources there reported blaring sirens and said surveillance drones were sent above the base to locate the source of the rockets .

The US embassy in Baghdad as well as the 5 , 200 American troops stationed across the country have faced a spate of rocket attacks in recent months that Washington has blamed on Iran and its allies in Iraq .

One attack last month killed a US contractor working in northern Iraq , prompting retaliatory American air strikes that killed 25 hardline fighters close to Iran .
Tensions boiled over on Friday when the US struck Soleimani ’ s convoy as it drove out of the airport and US diplomats and troops across Iraq had been bracing themselves for more rocket attacks .

AFP

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