This article was written by Reuters:
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi escaped unharmed in an assassination attempt by armed drone in Baghdad, officials said on Sunday, in an incident that dramatically raises tension in the country weeks after a general election disputed by Iran-backed militia groups.
Kadhimi appeared in a video footage published by his office on Sunday chairing a meeting with top security commanders to discuss the drone attack.
"The cowardly terrorist attack that targeted the home of the prime minister last night with the aim of assassinating him, is a serious targeting of the Iraqi state by criminal armed groups," the premier’s office said in a statement issued following the meeting.
Six members of Kadhimi's personal protection force stationed outside his residence in the Green Zone were wounded, security sources told Reuters.
Three drones were used in the attack, including two that were intercepted and downed by security forces while a third drone hit the residence, state news agency INA quoted an interior ministry spokesman as saying.
A spokesman for the armed forces commander in chief said the security situation was stable inside the fortified Green Zone - which houses the residence, government buildings and foreign embassies - following the attack.
No group immediately claimed responsibility.
The attack came two days after violent clashes in Baghdad between government forces and supporters of Iran-backed political parties, most of which have armed wings, since those groups lost dozens of seats in parliament after a general election on Oct. 10.
Kadhimi has ordered an investigation into the deaths and injuries of demonstrators and security forces in those clashes.
President Barham Salih condemned the attack as a heinous crime against Iraq. "We cannot accept that Iraq will be dragged into chaos and a coup against its constitutional system," he said in a tweet.
Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose party was the biggest winner in last month's election, called the attack a terrorist act against Iraq's stability that aimed to "return Iraq to a state of chaos to be controlled by non-state forces".
The United States, Saudi Arabia and Iran condemned the attack.
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