Failed assassination bid against Iraq’s PM ramps up tension

BAGHDAD (AP) — Troops and patrols deployed throughout Baghdad on Sunday following the failed assassination attempt with drones that targeted Iraq's prime minister in his residence.

The attack significantly raised tensions, sparked by the refusal of Iran-backed militias to accept last month's parliamentary election results.

Seven of Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi's security guards were wounded in the attack by at least two drones in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone area, according to two Iraqi officials.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to give official statements.

Al-Kadhimi suffered a light cut, an aide said.

He later appeared on Iraqi television, seated behind a desk in a white shirt, looking calm and composed, with what appeared to be a bandage on his left hand.

“Cowardly rocket and drone attacks don't build homelands and don't build a future,” al-Kadhimi said during the television appearance. Later on Sunday, he met with Iraqi President Barham Salih and headed a government security meeting.

The sound of an explosion and heavy gunfire echoed across Baghdad from the direction of the Green Zone, which houses foreign embassies and government offices.

Handout photos showed the damage to al-Kadhimi's residence, including smashed windows and doors blown off their hinges.

A video distributed later by security forces showed more damage: A van parked outside the residence badly mangled, a shallow crater near the stairs, cracks in the ceiling and walls of a balcony and broken parts of the building's roof. Two small unexploded rockets were also filmed at the scene.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, but suspicion immediately fell on Iran-backed militias who had been publicly attacking al-Kadhimi.

They had been blamed for previous attacks on the green zone.

The attack came amid a stand-off between security forces and the pro-Iran Shiite militias whose supporters have been camped outside the Green Zone for nearly a month.

They gathered after rejecting the results of Iraq's parliamentary elections, in which they lost around two-thirds of their seats.

“The assassination attempt is a dramatic escalation, crossing a line in unprecedented fashion that may have violent reverberations,” wrote Ranj Alaaldin, a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution, in a post on Twitter.

Protests turned deadly Friday when the demonstrators tried to enter the Green Zone.

Security forces used tear gas and live ammunition.

There was an exchange of fire in which one protester affiliated with the militias was killed.

Dozens of security forces were injured.

Al-Khadimi ordered an investigation.

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