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Two drones struck a United States logistics facility near Baghdad's international airport Thursday evening as the American embassy warned that pro-Iran armed groups may be planning imminent attacks across the capital, and Iraqi authorities pledged to take all measures necessary to prevent further escalation.
The attack targeted the US diplomatic and logistics centre at the airport complex in western Baghdad. The strike caused a fire but no casualties were reported, and one of the drones was intercepted and shot down behind the airport.
The incident coincided with the collapse of a fragile pause in hostilities: the influential pro-Iran group Kataeb Hezbollah had declared a ceasefire on March 19 and extended it twice, but allowed it to expire Wednesday night without announcing a renewal.
Violence also intensified in Iraq's autonomous north. At least 30 drones targeted the Erbil and Duhok governorates overnight, security sources said, without causing casualties. Erbil governor Omed Khoshnaw said more than 500 attacks had struck the Kurdistan region since the start of the war.
Earlier Thursday, the US embassy in Baghdad issued an unusually blunt public alert warning that "Iraqi terrorist militia groups aligned with Iran may intend to conduct attacks in central Baghdad in the next 24-48 hours."
The embassy, itself located in the heart of the capital and a repeated target of past strikes, urged American citizens in Iraq to leave immediately, warning that militia groups had been "targeting Americans for kidnapping."
The statement also took direct aim at Baghdad, saying "the Iraqi government has not prevented terrorist attacks in or from Iraqi territory," and cautioned that Iran-aligned factions "may claim to be associated with the Iraqi government.". The PMF, formerly known as Hashed al-Shaabi, is a coalition of armed groups formally integrated into Iraq's regular army but containing pro-Iran factions with a well-documented history of acting independently.
The kidnapping warning carried immediate weight. On Tuesday evening, American journalist Shelly Kittleson was abducted in Baghdad, according to her employer and media advocacy groups. Iraqi authorities have detained a suspect with alleged links to Kataeb Hezbollah in connection with the case. The US embassy later reposted a State Department appeal, offered in Arabic, announcing a $3 million reward for information on pro-Iran attacks and calling on the public to "stop the terrorist attacks."
Iraq's foreign ministry, responding late Thursday, said it was "exerting maximum effort to prevent any escalation," including strengthening security measures to protect diplomatic missions, foreign interests, and citizens, while maintaining internal stability. The statement reflected Baghdad's enduring dilemma: managing deep economic and political ties with both the United States and Iran while armed factions aligned with Tehran operate with considerable autonomy inside the country.
Last month, Washington and Baghdad said they would "intensify cooperation" to prevent attacks and ensure Iraqi territory is not used to launch strikes against US facilities, a pledge the embassy's Thursday statement suggested had not been honored. The Pentagon has acknowledged that US helicopters carried out strikes against pro-Iran armed groups in Iraq during the broader conflict, while Washington has firmly denied targeting Iraqi security forces directly.
Iraq has been drawn deeper into the wider regional confrontation between the United States, Israel, and Iran, with strikes hitting both American interests and pro-Iran factions on Iraqi soil. The expiry of Kataeb Hezbollah's ceasefire, combined with Thursday's drone attack and the embassy's public warning, has raised fears that a period of relative calm may be giving way to a renewed cycle of escalation.
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