The US embassy in Baghdad was hit by a drone attack on Saturday following strikes that killed three members of a powerful Iran-backed group in the Iraqi capital, security sources said.

Iraq, long a proxy battleground between the United States and Iran, has been drawn further into the Middle East war triggered by US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.

A cloud of black smoke rose above the US diplomatic mission shortly after explosions were heard Saturday morning, an AFP journalist reported. Two security officials confirmed that a drone struck the embassy complex.

The US embassy did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment on the incident. It is the second attack on the Baghdad embassy since the start of the war.

Later on Saturday, the embassy issued an updated security alert urging citizens to “leave now” and to avoid the embassy in Baghdad or the consulate general in Erbil, citing “ongoing risk of missiles, drones, and rockets in Iraqi airspace.”

“Iran-aligned terrorist militias have repeatedly attacked the International Zone” in Baghdad, the alert said on X. Attacks have also occurred around Erbil International Airport and the Consulate General, it added.

Several Tehran-backed armed groups, which the US designates as terrorist organizations, operate under the Islamic Resistance in Iraq umbrella and have claimed daily drone and rocket attacks on US bases in Iraq and the region.

Since the war began, multiple attacks on members of these groups have been attributed to US and Israeli operations.

Strikes kill three fighters

The embassy attack came shortly after two strikes targeted the Iran-backed group Kataeb Hezbollah in Baghdad, killing three members, including a commander.

The first strike hit a house in the Arasat neighborhood, where several Iran-backed groups operate. A second strike hit a vehicle in the Nahrawan district two hours later.

Security sources initially reported two group members killed, including “a key figure” in the house, and another in the vehicle strike. The death toll was later revised to three, all killed in the house strike, a pro-Iranian source told AFP.

Kataeb Hezbollah held a funeral procession for the three fighters, including commander Abou Ali al-Amiri. Local reports suggested the group’s top leader, Ahmad al-Hamidawi, was wounded in the house strike, though AFP could not independently verify this.

A pro-Iran source described the strike as a “targeted assassination” attempt. A resident of the Arasat district told AFP that “no one in the neighborhood knew that the house, which is very modest, was occupied by Kataeb Hezbollah.”

None of the sources identified who carried out the strikes, and Kataeb Hezbollah has not commented.