The embassy’s C-RAM defense system was used to intercept the missiles mid-air, according to Iraqi officials.

The air defense system was installed by the U.S. last summer as armed groups stepped up rocket attacks targeting the embassy in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone.

On 31 December 2019, Kata'ib Hezbollah militiamen and their Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) supporters and sympathizers attacked the U.S. embassy in the Green Zone in response to U.S. airstrikes on 29 December 2019 that targeted weapons depots and command and control installations of Kata'ib Hezbollah across Iraq and Syria.

In the early morning hours of 3 January 2020, the commander of Iran's Quds Force, Major General Qasem Soleimani, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were killed in a U.S. drone strike while traveling in a convoy near Baghdad International Airport.

The U.S. attack was formally announced by the United States Department of Defense in a press release.

On January 26, three rockets were fired on the U.S. embassy wounding at least one staff member present in the cafeteria at dinner time, with the nationality of the wounded still undisclosed, other sources reported 3 wounded.