Attack on US base: entrepreneur dies in rocket attack in Iraq

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Attack on US base
Entrepreneur dies in rocket attack in Iraq

Several missiles hit the Iraqi city of Erbil and suburbs around the airport. A man dies, it is said to have been an entrepreneur. A previously almost unknown group claims the attack for itself.

A civilian was killed in a rocket attack on an air base in northern Iraq used by US troops. Six other people, including a US soldier, were injured in the attack in Erbil, said the US-led coalition. The civilian killed is believed to be an entrepreneur; his nationality is not yet known. A previously largely unknown group claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to information from Iraqi and Western security circles, at least three rockets were fired at the airport in the city of Erbil. A rocket hit the military part of the airport where soldiers from the coalition against IS were located. The other two missiles reportedly hit residential areas near the airport. According to intelligence sources, the rockets were fired within the autonomous area. They are said to have been shot down about eight kilometers west of Erbil.

The hitherto little known group with the name "Aulijaa al-Dam" (Blood Guard) claimed the attacks on the Internet for themselves. A dozen or so groups of this type emerged in the past year, but security officials in the US and Iraq suspect more well-known pro-Iranian groups such as Kataib Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl al-Hak. Both groups vehemently oppose the US-led coalition that has been supporting Iraq in the fight against the jihadist militia Islamic State (IS) since 2014.

Iraqi President Barham Saleh spoke on Twitter of a "criminal act of terrorism" that would mean a "dangerous escalation" for security in the region. Masrur Barsani, Prime Minister of the Kurdish Autonomous Region in Northern Iraq, condemned the attack "most emphatically".

It was the first time in nearly two months that United States soldiers or diplomatic facilities had been shot at in Iraq. Dozens of rocket and bomb attacks on foreign embassies, troops and facilities had previously been carried out in Iraq since October 2019.

The US has repeatedly blamed pro-Iranian militias such as the Shiite Hezbollah brigades for the attacks. At the beginning of January 2020, the Iranian top general Kassem Soleimani was killed in a US drone attack in Iraq. A few days later, Iranian rockets were fired at Erbil airport. The killing of Soleimani brought both countries to the brink of war.