Last Updated on August 12, 2019
Breaking reports from the Middle East show shells striking near the U.S. Embassy in Iraq amid an ongoing conflict in the region.
Explosive footage shows clouds of smoke rising next to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq as shells struck a militia base and the Green Zone surrounding Embassy grounds.
انفجار هائل بمستودع أسلحة جنوب #بغداد.. وتقارير عراقية تؤكد تبعيته للحشد الشعبي وفرار سكان المنازل القريبة بعد أن طالتهم الشظايا #إرم_نيوز #العراق #Iraq pic.twitter.com/HmKezFQtzY
— Erem News – إرم نيوز (@EremNews) August 12, 2019
Air raid sirens can be heard in the distance as black plumes of debris spew into the sunset with each impact. According to Sky News Arabia, the initial target of the attack was a weapons cache belonging to the Popular Mobilization Forces, a Shia Muslim Iraqi state-sponsored militia group:
Sky News Arabia – Abu Dhabi, private sources told “Sky News Arabia”, Monday, an explosion occurred in a weapons store belonging to the militia “Popular Mobilization” in the area of Abu Dshir, south of Baghdad.
A video showed clouds of smoke rising from the scene of the blast at one of the weapons stores of the Popular Mobilization militia south of Baghdad.
The correspondent of “Sky News Arabia” that the US Embassy in Baghdad, sounded sirens because of the fall of shells in the vicinity.According to our correspondent, shells fell in the Green Zone and its environs, following the explosion at the weapons store belonging to the Popular Mobilization Militia.
Additional footage uncovered by Sky News Arabia shows people shouting and moving about as the chaos unfolds mere blocks from the site the video was recorded.
This is a breaking news story and National File will provide updates as they become available.