Two Katyusha rockets hit Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, Iraq's state news agency reported Sunday citing security forces.

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One rocket was destroyed in the air by the C-RAM defense system and the other landed near the zone's festivals arena damaging two cars, the report added.

Security forces started an investigation to detect the launch site, the agency reported.

A US military official told Reuters that the C-RAM system brought down one of the rounds and none of them landed on the US Embassy. The official said there were no American casualties.

The Green Zone hosts foreign embassies, including the United States Embassy, and government buildings and is regularly the target of rockets fired by groups that US and Iraqi officials say are backed by Iran.

US officials have said Iranian-backed militia could increase attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria in coming weeks, in part to mark the anniversary of the killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who were killed a US drone strike in Iraq on Jan. 2, 2020.

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Sirens blasted from the US embassy inside the zone, which houses government buildings and foreign missions, and helicopters were hovering above, the sources said.

It was the second such attack this week after three rockets landed in the Green Zone on Thursday, also causing no casualties.

Washington blames such attacks on Iranian-backed militia groups. Iran has not directly commented on the incidents but little-known groups believed to be connected to Iran-aligned militias have claimed some attacks.

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Iraqi officials said the embassy's recently installed C-RAM air defense system may have attempted to intercept the rocket as the system was operational late Saturday. A recent spate of rocket attacks has struck close to the US embassy and targeted American troops on Iraqi bases. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

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The rocket was launched from the Ali Al-Saleh area of Baghdad and landed next to a house close to a local TV channel late Saturday, the military statement said. A child suffered head injuries and the house was damaged.

Iraqi security forces say they also thwarted another attack in the Umm al-Azam area aiming to hit Camp Taji, north of Baghdad, a training base used by US-led coalition forces.

In March, two Americans and one British soldier were killed following a barrage of rockets on Camp Taji.

The latest uptick in attacks comes shortly before Iraq embarks on strategic talks with the US in which the presence of American forces in the country is expected to top the agenda.

The US has criticized the federal government for being unable to reign in Iran-backed militia groups it believes are orchestrating the attacks. Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has pledged to protect American installations from attacks, US officials said.

Iraqi security forces last week raided the headquarters of the powerful Iran-backed paramilitary Kataib Hezbollah and detained 14 men suspected of being responsible for rocket attacks targeting the Green Zone. Thirteen detainees were later released and one remains in custody.

The move drew praise from the US but condemnation from Iran-backed political factions in Iraq.

The US embassy began testing the new air defense system late Saturday, the Iraqi officials said. It drew condemnation from Deputy Speaker of Parliament Hassan al-Kaabi, who called on the government to take action against the "illegal" move which would "provoke the Iraqi people," according to a government statement.

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The attack came just before 3:30 a.m., according to Col. Myles B. Caggins III, a spokesman for the US military operation in Iraq.

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The attack was the latest in a recent series of rocket and mortar strikes on Iraqi bases housing US troops. On Thursday, a mortar shell exploded in the K1 Iraqi military airbase in Kirkuk province in northern Iraq. No casualties were reported, Iraqi security officials said.

An Iranian missile attack on Iraq's Ain al-Asad air base on Jan. 8 injured dozens of US service members. It was in retaliation for the US drone strike in Baghdad that killed Iran's most powerful general, Qassem Soleimani, on Jan. 3.

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Security sources told Reuters that at least one rocket landed inside the US embassy compound and wounded three people. If confirmed, it would be the first time in years that such attacks on the Green Zone, which are regular, have actually hurt staff there.

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Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi condemned the attack in a statement from his office, and said that the continuation of such acts could "drag Iraq into becoming a battlefield."

Separately, Iraqi security forces shot at anti-government protesters in Baghdad, killing at least one person, and unidentified men set fire to sit-in tents in a southern Iraqi city, police and medics said, as months-long civil unrest escalated.

Anti-government protests erupted in Baghdad on Oct. 1 and quickly turned violent. Security forces and unidentified gunmen have shot protesters dead. Nearly 500 people have been killed in the unrest.

The protests are an unprecedented leaderless challenge to Iraq's Shiite Muslim-dominated and largely Iran-backed ruling elite, which emerged after a US-led invasion toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.

In Baghdad, one protester was killed, police sources and medics said, and more than 100 others wounded across the country after the security forces tried to clear protest camps.

At least 75 of those wounded were in the southern city of Nassariya. A Reuters witness said protesters set fire to two security vehicles and hundreds of other demonstrators controlled key bridges in the city. Later, unidentified men set fire to tents that are part of a months-long sit-in in the city center.

Protests have flared in the last two days after populist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, many of whose supporters had participated, said he would no longer be involved in anti-government demonstrations.

Sadr opposes all foreign interference in Iraq but has aligned himself more closely in recent months with Iran and the Tehran-backed parties that dominate state institutions in Baghdad.

Some demonstrators have accused the populist cleric of treachery to their cause.

Sadr has organized separate anti-American demonstrations aimed at pressuring US troops to leave Iraq, moves that critics say aim to eclipse the anti-establishment movement which has taken aim at all politicians including Sadr.

Sadr had called for demonstrations against the US Embassy in Baghdad and other cities on Sunday but cancelled them, with his office giving "avoiding internal strife" as the reason.

Earlier on Sunday, hundreds of university students had gathered in Tahrir Square, the main protest camp in Baghdad, chanting slogans against the United States and Iran.

Protests also continued in the cities of Kerbala, Najaf and Diwaniya, defying attempts by security forces to end their months-long sit-in, police sources and Reuters witnesses said.

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"Two Katyusha rockets fall inside the Green Zone without causing casualties. Details to follow," it said in a statement.

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US Vice President Mike Pence, meanwhile, said on Wednesday the United States had received intelligence that Iran had asked its allied militias not to attack US targets.

"We're receiving some encouraging intelligence that Iran is sending messages to those very same militias not to move against American targets or civilians, and we hope that that message continues to echo," Pence told CBS News in an interview.

Also Wednesday, the US told the United Nations that the killing of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani was self-defense and vowed to take additional action "as necessary" in the Middle East to protect US personnel and interests.

In a letter to the UN Security Council, US Ambassador Kelly Craft said the United States also stands "ready to engage without preconditions in serious negotiations with Iran, with the goal of preventing further endangerment of international peace and security or escalation by the Iranian regime."

The killing of Soleimani in Baghdad on Friday was justified under Article 51 of the UN Charter, wrote Craft in the letter.

Under Article 51, countries are required to "immediately report" to the 15-member Security Council any measures taken in exercising the right of self-defense. The United States used Article 51 to justify taking action in Syria against Islamic State militants in 2014.

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In 1979, supporters of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini stormed the American Embassy in Tehran, taking its staff hostage. On Tuesday, on the last day of 2019, members of pro-Iranian militias in Iraq stormed the US Embassy compound in Baghdad – almost taking American hostages again.

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In many ways, Tuesday's humiliation was even more stinging. The "Green Zone" in Baghdad, which houses the US embassy along with other embassies and government buildings, is a fortified area, perhaps one of the most guarded compounds on the planet, surrounded by outer and inner security rings of Iraqi soldiers and security personnel. Dozens of roadblocks and checkpoints are positioned on the roads leading to the Green Zone.

In hindsight, it appears the compound's guards stood idly by, didn't try preventing the thousands of protesters from entering through the main gate and allowed them to advance unimpeded toward the US Embassy, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build.

Images broadcast from inside the embassy, where several rooms were torched by the militiamen, showed American soldiers crowded together, besieged and likely frightened over their fate.

....Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities. They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New Year!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2019

President Trump tweeted on Tuesday that Iran was behind the embassy attack, and he wasn't wrong. Over the past half-year, Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, has watched as the Americans have completely failed to respond to a series of provocations he has ordered in retaliation for the economic sanctions imposed on his country – from the lack of response to the targeting of oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and downing of an American drone, to ignoring the bombing of Saudi oil facilities.

Soleimani recently concluded that it was safe to raise the stakes. The rocket attack last week by the pro-Iranian Hezbollah Brigades militia, under direct orders from Tehran, on the American-Iraqi base near Kirkuk – which killed an American defense contractor and wounded two others – was a planned ambush. The American counterstrike, which claimed the lives of 30 militiamen, allowed Soleimani to order the participants of Tuesday's funerals to storm the US Embassy.

In general, Iraq is Soleimani's preferred area of operations in the war he is waging against the US in the Middle East, for several reasons. One is that it allows the Iranians to run their war against the Americans via their proxies, while keeping their hands clean. "It wasn't us who fired the rockets at the military base." Secondly, the thousands of American soldiers in Iraq are a convenient target, because many of them are stationed at bases located within easy range of the pro-Iranian militias.

Thirdly, a conflict with the US on Iraqi soil via the militias beholden to Tehran helps the Iranians strike a wedge between Washington and the Iraqi government. Thus, for instance, because many of the militia fighters who were harmed in the American airstrikes were Iraqi citizens, the outgoing Iraqi prime minister was forced to condemn the American action and the "violation of his country's sovereignty" – without even mentioning the attack on the American base in Kirkuk.

Furthermore, it became clear on Tuesday that Iran intends to exploit the "embassy incident" to rally public support in Iraq for expelling American forces from the country.

To this end, the protesters were instructed to erect tents around the embassy compound and prepare for an extended stay there – which is why Washington quickly demanded their immediate removal by the Iraqi government.

The clash with Iran on Iraqi soil, which escalated on Tuesday, presents the Trump administration with a difficult dilemma. On one hand, maintaining its policy of restraint in the face of Iranian provocations will only encourage the Iranians to carry out even more brazen attacks via their proxies; and if, heaven forbid, Trump ultimately decides to withdraw his forces from Iraq – Iran will celebrate its greatest victory.

On the other hand, any decision by Washington to continue hitting Iran and its proxies militarily, while certainly appropriate, could ensnare the US in a war that Trump, in an election year, really doesn't want.

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