A rocket hit the residence of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi, but he was not injured. Mustafa al-Kadhemi who is also the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces said he is fine and called for calm and restraint.
“The missiles of treachery will not discourage the believers, and a hair will not be shaken in the stability and persistence of our security forces,” he said in a social media post.
“A failed assassination attempt against the Prime Minister, the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, by a booby-trapped drone, tried to target his residence in the Green Zone in Baghdad… The security forces have taken the necessary measures,” as per the press service of the Iraqi security agencies.
The Shafaq news agency, citing a source in the security services, reports that three of the prime minister’s security guards were injured in the attack.
In the Green Zone area, where the US Embassy and other diplomatic missions are located, “there was an intense firefight” during the attack. According to an Al Arabiya source in the Iraqi security services, the drone, which allegedly fired at the prime minister’s residence, was intercepted.
The situation in Iraq escalated after the early parliamentary elections held on October 10, in which, according to preliminary data, the bloc of the influential Shiite politician Muqtada al-Sadr won.
The Al-Fatah coalition, led by Hadi al-Amiri, who leads the Badr detachment, the largest in the Shiite militia, has only 21 seats, while in the 2018 elections it had 45 seats in parliament. The coalition has filed an appeal demanding to reconsider the results of the vote, hundreds of its supporters are holding protests outside the “green zone” of the Iraqi capital, where state institutions and foreign diplomatic missions are located. The Supreme Election Commission has not yet announced the final election results.