File Photo: Al-Rasheed hotel in Iraq. Photo courtesy of Social Media.
A fire later broke out at the nearby Al‑Rasheed Hotel, one of the city’s largest and best-known hotels, according to Iraqi media and security officials cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Sirens were heard across the area following the blast, a witness told Reuters.
The Green Zone houses foreign diplomatic missions, including the US embassy, as well as government buildings and residences for senior Iraqi officials.
The incident comes amid a surge in attacks linked to the widening US-Israeli war on Iran.
Armed groups and officials say at least 53 people have been killed in Iraq since the escalation began, according to an AFP tally based on statements from the groups and security authorities.
Among them were 39 fighters from Iran-aligned armed factions who were killed in strikes the groups blamed on the United States and Israel.
France said an Iranian drone attack killed a French soldier in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region, while Kurdish security sources said a guard at Erbil International Airport was killed in a separate drone strike.
In another incident, a civilian died from rocket shrapnel following a strike southeast of Baghdad, officials said.
The United States military also reported that a refuelling aircraft crashed in western Iraq, killing all six crew members. The military said the crash was not caused by hostile or friendly fire.
Meanwhile, the powerful Iraqi armed group Kataeb Hezbollah announced on Monday that its senior security commander, Abu Ali al‑Askari, had been killed.
The group’s leader, Ahmad al‑Hamidawi, also known as Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi, confirmed the death in a statement but did not specify how or when it occurred.
An Iraqi security official told AFP that al-Askari, whose real name was Abu Ali al‑Amiri, had been killed in a strike in Baghdad on Saturday.
Kataeb Hezbollah described him as its security chief and the official responsible for issuing the group’s key statements.
The Iran-aligned faction is part of the umbrella network known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which has claimed a series of attacks against US interests in Iraq and elsewhere in the region since the conflict escalated.
Several strikes targeting members of those groups across Iraq in recent days have been blamed by the factions on the United States and Israel.
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