Blasts heard near US Baghdad embassy, Israel attacks Lebanon

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Iran war live: Blasts heard near US Baghdad embassy, Israel attacks Lebanon

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Al Jazeera Live

By Mariamne Everett and Fiona Kelliher

Published On 17 Mar 202617 Mar 2026

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• Drone activity has been reported in Baghdad’s Green Zone, and blasts have been heard near the US embassy in the Iraqi capital.
• The director of the US’s National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, has resigned over the war on Iran, saying the country posed “no imminent threat”.

195 UpdatesAuto-updates

• 19m ago

   (20:00 GMT)

  

  ‘Gangster’ Israel turning war into ‘an industry of assassinations’

  Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, says Israel’s continuous targeting of high-profile Iranian leaders, including political figures, is not a normal practice in warfare.

  Israel is “turning this [war] into an industry of assassinations, which is not the norm in wars”, Bishara said.

  “In wars, you don’t start by killing political leaders, including elected leaders. That programme of assassination is gangster, it’s terrorism, it’s not the norm of war,” he added.

  Bishara noted that after the killing of each of the leader, Iran has repeatedly made grand statements along the lines of “the system in Iran is strong and the killing of one leader isn’t going to lead to the implosion of the system.”

  While this may be true to “a large extent, quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes, in the sense” that every additional killing or assassination will further erode the ruling system, said Bishara.
• 29m ago

   (19:50 GMT)

  WATCH: Trump says ‘good thing’ counterterrorism director quit over Iran war

  This is how the US president reacted to the news that Joe Kent, the director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, which advises both Trump and the director of national intelligence on “terror” threats, had resigned over the war:

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  Trump says it’s a ‘good thing’ counterterrorism director resigned over Iran