US forces shoot down armed drone over Iraq embassy

Iraqi security officials said US forces shot down an armed drone over its embassy in Baghdad on Monday night, hours after a rocket attack on a base housing US troops in the country’s west.

US fired rockets into the air over Baghdad, according to AFP reporters, with Iraqi security sources saying the salvos had taken out a drone.

Since the beginning of the year, 47 attacks have targeted US interests in the country, where 2,500 American forces are fighting the jihadist Islamic State organisation as part of an international coalition.

Six of them employed drones, a practise that causes the coalition problems because the aircraft may elude air defences.