Rockets hit Iraq’s Green Zone

Two rockets slammed into the Iraqi capital's high-security Green Zone early yesterday, hours before US-led forces were set to pull out of a second base in the country. Some 7,500 troops are in Iraq as part of the US-led coalition helping local troops fight jihadist remnants, but those numbers are being significantly drawn down this month. The alliance is temporarily bringing some trainers home as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus pandemic and is also leaving other Iraqi bases altogether. Those bases and foreign embassies, particularly the American mission, have been targeted in more than two dozen rocket strikes since late October. The attacks, which the US has blamed on an Iran-backed armed group, have prompted fears of a proxy war on Iraqi soil. Before dawn yesterday, two rockets punched into an empty square near an Iraqi security headquarters in the Green Zone, where government buildings and foreign embassies are based, the Iraqi security forces said in a statement.