A day after an Iranian bombing of American targets in Iraq .. Two rockets landed in the Green Zone, and there were no casualties

The Iraqi army said that two rockets landed yesterday, Wednesday, inside the Green Zone in central Baghdad, without causing any casualties. One of them landed near the American embassy. The bombing came less than a day after the missile attack carried out by Iran at dawn yesterday, on two western and northern bases of Iraq used by American forces.

The Iraqi Army's Military Media Cell said that two Katyusha rockets had landed in the Green Zone. Reuters also quoted security sources as saying that one of them fell near the American embassy.

Anadolu Agency quoted a captain in the Baghdad police, who asked not to be named, that one of the rockets landed on the bank of the Tigris River near the suspension bridge, while the other landed on a building under construction, indicating the siren sounding inside the Green Zone.

The security source added that the American military helicopters flew in the air over the embassy and its surroundings after the bombing.

Iraqi faction
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the new attack, but Al-Jazeera correspondent in Baghdad Walid Ibrahim stated that the fall of the two rockets came after the threat of the Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq faction of the Popular Mobilization that the Iraqi retaliation for the assassination of the United States by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis is coming, and that it will not be less than the attack Iranian missile on US military targets in Iraq.

Tonight's attack comes less than 24 hours after the Iranian Revolutionary Guards announced targeting the Ain al-Assad base in western Iraq and the Erbil base in the north with dozens of ballistic missiles, in response to the assassination of the commander of the Quds Force in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Qassem Soleimani. Iranian television said that "80 American terrorists were killed" in the missile strikes, and that US helicopters and military equipment were damaged.

On the other hand, US President Donald Trump denied that the Iranian missile attack had resulted in casualties among the American soldiers, but only minor material damage.

Trump said in press statements that his country does not want to use military force against Iran, and announced that it will impose additional economic sanctions on the Iranian regime, and that these sanctions will continue until Tehran changes its behavior, considering that the economy is the biggest deterrent, not military force.

Restore deterrence
In a related context, US Defense Secretary Mark Esber said that his country has returned a level of deterrence to Iran, as he put it, and added that the United States is ready to protect its forces and any other emergency.

Esber indicated that he discussed with members of Congress the next steps to deal with Iran, and Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and CIA Director Gina Hasbel briefly briefed members of Congress about developments in the situation with Iran, particularly the missile attack carried out by Tehran early Wednesday.

On the other hand, the chairman of the American Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Millie, said that 11 Iranian missiles landed at Ein al-Assad base and destroyed facilities, equipment and helicopters, without causing injuries to the forces due to the protection measures, he said.

General Millie expected that what he described as Shiite militias in Iraq would launch attacks on international coalition forces to fight the Islamic State.

Al-Jazeera correspondent in Washington, Fadi Mansour, stated that General Melli stated that Iran was aiming, by its missile strikes, to inflict casualties on the forces of his country, especially at Ain Al-Assad base that includes a large number of American forces, and those of other countries in the international coalition.

An opportunity for negotiations
On the other hand, the American "The Hill" website said that President Trump told the Chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, Senator Jim Einhof that he saw the recent events as an opportunity to start new negotiations with Iran, at a time when the Iranian nuclear agreement concluded by the former US President Barack Obama.

According to the site, Trump told Einhof, one of his top Republican allies in the Senate, that he was not planning further military strikes against Iran.

In a related context, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Wednesday that the Democratic-dominated House will vote today on a draft resolution preventing President Trump from going to war against Iran after he ordered the assassination of Soleimani.

Pelosi added that "our concerns have not been dissipated," despite the confidential information that deputies had seen from senior administration officials about the circumstances that prompted Trump to order the assassination of the Quds Force commander.

It is noteworthy that these developments come in light of the deteriorating relations between Washington and Tehran since the Trump administration withdrew from the nuclear agreement concluded between Iran and the major world powers in 2015, and what followed America's tightening of sanctions on Iran and its adoption of a policy of maximum pressure on it in order to push it to conclude a new nuclear agreement And, to abandon what Washington calls the destabilization of Tehran in the region.