BAGHDAD, May 19 (Xinhua) -- An explosion was heard in the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad in Iraq on Sunday evening, while sirens could be heard following the blast, a security official said.

"A Katyusha rocket hit central Baghdad's Green Zone without causing any casualties," Yahya Rasoul, spokesman of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command, said in a statement.

Another security official anonymously told Xinhua that a Katyusha rocket struck an empty area near the U.S. embassy in the Green Zone, causing no casualties.

He said the security forces found a rocket launcher in Baladiyat neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, which believed to have fired the rocket on the Green Zone.

After the blast, sirens could be heard briefly in the Green Zone, which houses the U.S. embassy and some of the Iraqi government offices.

The heavily fortified Green Zone has been frequently targeted by insurgents' mortar and rocket attacks. The roughly 10-square-km zone is located on the west bank of the Tigris River, which bisects the Iraqi capital.

On May 15, the U.S. State Department ordered the non-emergency U.S. employees working in both the embassy in Baghdad and the consulate in Erbil to leave Iraq, according to a U.S. embassy statement.

Earlier, the U.S. military said the U.S. forces were on high alert in Iraq and Syria over fears of "imminent threats" from Iran-backed forces in the region.

The U.S. measures came amid the tense situation in the region after U.S. President Donald Trump decided not to re-issue the sanctions waivers for major importers to continue buying Iran's oil when they expired in early May.

The United States has also increased its military buildup in the region recently by deploying an aircraft carrier, bombers and anti-missile systems there, citing a threat of Iranian attack. Enditem

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