US forces shoot down armed drone over Iraq embassy

Attack came hours after rockets were fired at airbase hosting US soldiers

Vehicles and drones parade in Iraq's Diyala province to mark the seventh anniversary of the Iran-backed Popular Mobilisation Forces. Reuters

US forces shot down an armed drone above their embassy in Baghdad on Monday night, Iraqi security officials said, hours after a rocket attack on a base housing US soldiers in the west of the country.

American defence systems fired rockets into the air in Baghdad, AFP reported, with Iraqi security sources saying the salvos took out a drone that was laden with explosives.

Since the start of the year, 47 attacks have been launched at US interests in the country, where 2,500 American troops are posted as part of an international coalition to fight ISIS.

Six of them involved these kinds of drones in a tactic that poses a headache for the coalition as the aircraft can evade air defences.

In April, a drone packed with explosives hit the coalition's Iraq headquarters in the military part of the airport in Erbil, the Iraqi Kurdish regional capital.

The next month, a drone packed with explosives hit the Ain Al Asad airbase housing US troops.

On June 9, three explosives-laden drones targeted Baghdad airport, where US soldiers are also posted. One was intercepted by the Iraqi army.

The US recently offered up to $3 million for information on attacks against its interests in Iraq.

On Monday, three more rockets were launched at Ain Al Asad airbase in the western desert, the international anti-ISIS coalition said. No casualties were reported.