At least three rockets landed in the vicinity of Baghdad International Airport late on Thursday in the latest attack that coincided with tensions between Baghdad’s allies Tehran and Washington.
Iraqi security officials said Friday that the rockets landed near the area of the US airport. According to an Iraqi military statement, there are no casualties.
The security forces detonated unfired rockets that were placed on the roof of an empty house used to launch the attack, the statement said.
This is the second attack on US interests in Iraq in less than a week. On Sunday, five rockets targeted another airbase north of the capital, wounding three Iraqi soldiers and two foreign contractors.
There was no immediate claim of accountability for the attack, but Washington regularly blames Iraqi factions linked by Iran for such attacks on its troops and diplomats.
According to the news agency, the attack was the 23rd bomb or rocket attack on US interests in Iraq – including troops, the US embassy in Baghdad or an Iraqi foreign convoy – since US President Joe Biden entered service in January.
Dozens of other attacks have been carried out since late 2019 under the administration of former US President Donald Trump.
In mid-April, an explosive device bomb exploded at Iraq’s Erbil airport during the first report of the use of such a weapon on a base used by US coalition troops in the country, officials declared.
In February, more than a dozen rockets targeted the military complex within the same airport.
In the past year, two foreign contractors, one Iraqi contractor, and eight Iraqi civilians were killed.
The US has pledged to withdraw all remaining troops from Iraq, although the two countries have not set a timeline for what would be a second US withdrawal since the 2003 invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein.