9 rockets hit Green Zone while parliament electing a country’s president

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Amid security preparations for the presidential election session in the Iraqi Parliament in Baghdad, after a year of disruption and stagnation, several rockets targeted the heavily fortified Green Zone, wounding 10 people, according to a security source.

The Security Media Cell reported that nine Katyusha rockets targeted the Green Zone and its surroundings in the center of the capital.

The rockets were launched from eastern Baghdad towards the Green Zone, and no party claimed responsibility for the attack, according to Al-Arabiya News.

These attacks took place amid security alert in the Iraqi capital before the parliamentary session to elect a president for the country starts.

The parliamentary session began under the chairmanship of the Speaker of the Parliament, Muhammad Al-Halbousi, after the completion of the quorum, which reached, according to the Parliament’s media department, 269 deputies.

The attack also followed a remarkable transformation in the political arena as Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) announced in a statement the withdrawal of its candidate, Reber Ahmed.

Leaders in the KDP confirmed that the party supports Abdel Latif Rashid.

“We will vote for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) candidate, Abdul Latif Rashid,” Head of KDP’s bloc, Vian Sabri Al-Kadi, told Shafaq News.  

Since the parliamentary elections took place last year, Iraq has been experiencing a raging political crisis between the Sadrist movement led by Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Coordination Framework which includes the State of Law coalition led by Nouri Al-Maliki, the Fatah Alliance, and other pro-Iran factions.

This political crisis so far prevented the election of a president and the formation of a new government.