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ERBIL, February 15: A rocket attack on a US-led military base in Kurdish northern Iraq on Monday killed a civilian contractor and injured five other people, including a US service member, according to initial reports, the US coalition in Iraq said.
It was the deadliest attack by US-led forces in nearly a year in Iraq, where tensions have escalated between US forces, their Iraqi and Kurdish allies on the one hand, and Iran-aligned militias on the other.
A coalition spokesman said on Twitter that the attack hit coalition forces in the Kurdish regional capital of Erbil, with further details to follow.
Kurdish security sources said that at least three rockets landed near the Erbil International Airport in the autonomous region late at night. Reuters reporters heard several loud explosions and saw a fire near the airport.
US troops occupy a military base adjacent to the civilian airport.
A statement from the Kurdish Interior Ministry said that several rockets were fired towards Erbil and its outskirts around 9:30 pm local time and some people were injured, but did not offer further details.
A group calling itself Saraya Awliya al-Dam claimed responsibility for the attack on the US-led base and said it was targeting the “US occupation” of Iraq. He provided no evidence for his claim.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday night that the United States was “outraged” by the attack.
In a statement, Blinken said that he had contacted the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan regional government, Masrour Barzani, “to discuss the incident and pledge our support for all efforts to investigate and hold those responsible accountable.”
Groups that some Iraqi officials say have ties to Iran have reported a series of rocket and roadside bomb attacks against coalition forces, contractors working for the coalition, and US facilities, including the embassy in Baghdad, in the last months.
The latest deadly attack on the coalition killed a British staff and two Americans in March last year.
Tension between the United States and Iran sent the Middle East to the brink of a full-scale confrontation in January 2020 after a US drone strike killed Iranian military mastermind Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US is “outraged” by a rocket attack Monday in the Iraqi Kurdistan region that allegedly killed a civilian contractor and injured several others, including a service member. American and several American contractors.
“I contacted the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan regional government, Masrour Barzani, to discuss the incident and pledge our support for all efforts to investigate and hold those responsible accountable,” Blinken said in a statement. – Reuters
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