US forces have shot down an armed drone above their embassy in Baghdad on Monday, Iraqi security officials confirmed. This comes just 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 and Iraqi security sources said that the salvos had taken out a drone, AFP reported.

Since the start of 2021, US bases and places of interest in Iraq have faced 47 attacks. 2,500 American troops are deployed as part of an international coalition to fight the jihadist Islamic State group. 

6 of 47 said attacks involved these kinds of drones, 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 Arbil, 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 deployed. One was intercepted by the Iraqi army. 

In a sign that the United States is concerned about new drone attacks, it recently offered up to $3 million for information on attacks targeting its interests in Iraq.

Separately on Monday, three rockets targeted an Iraqi airbase of Ain-al-Assad in the western desert. The base also housed US troops, the international anti-jihadist coalition said.