A Pentagon official speaking to Iran International on Thursday, denied an attack on the US embassy in Baghdad, but confirmed that Harir military base in Iraqi Kurdistan was targeted.

The official who requested anonymity said the attack north of Erbil inflicted no damage or casualties. Iran International’s sources in northern Iraq confirmed explosion at Harir base, but there was no information on casualties.

Earlier on Thursday, Iraqi militant groups back by Iran had claimed that they targeted the US embassy in Baghdad and others reported hearing explosion, but the Pentagon official dismissed these claims.

Sine the October 7 terror attack on Israel by Hamas, Iran’s armed proxy groups in the region have targeted US forces in Syria and Iraq more than 40 times. The United States has retaliated twice, bombing weapons storge facilities in Syria belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and their militia forces. The limited response has failed to deter Iran and its proxies.

Iran’s proxies attacked US forces in the region regularly since 2018, when Washington pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal and imposed sanctions. These attacks intensified in December 2019 leading to the targeted killing of Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top operator in the region, by orders of President Donald Trump.

However, in the past one year the attacks subsided apparently because Iran was negotiating with the Biden administration for unblocking billions of dollars of its frozen funds abroad. In June and August, the US agreed to unfreeze more than eight billion dollars blocked in Iraq and South Korea.