At least three rockets were fired at Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan in the north of the country. One reached an air base where American troops are stationed. Besides the military complex, two of them fell on residential areas on the outskirts of the city. Delovan Jalal, head of Erbil’s health department, told Agence France-Presse that at least five civilians were injured, one of whom was in critical condition.
The United States has called for an investigation into the attack and the prosecution of its perpetrators. “We are outraged by the rocket attack today,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “I contacted the Prime Minister of the Kurdish regional government Masrour Barzani to discuss the incident and I assured him of all our support to investigate and hold those responsible to account,” he said. An American soldier was injured in this attack.
An open investigation
This is the first time in nearly two months that such fire has targeted Western military or diplomatic installations in Iraq. The attack was claimed online by a little-known group calling themselves Awliyaa al-Dam or “Guardians of Blood”. Colonel Wayne Marotto, spokesman for the US-led coalition, told Agence France-Presse that the deceased civilian employee was not Iraqi, but he was not able to immediately clarify her nationality.
The Kurdistan Interior Ministry confirmed in a statement that “several rockets” had hit the city. He said security agencies had launched “a thorough investigation” and called on civilians to stay at home until further notice. Security forces were deployed around the airport after the attack, while the sound of helicopters in flight could be heard on the outskirts of the city, according to an Agence France-Presse correspondent.
Dangerous climbing
Iraqi President Barham Saleh said on Twitter that the attack was “a criminal act of terrorism” and “a dangerous escalation” for security in the region. Masrour Barzani, Prime Minister of the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan, condemned the attack “in the strongest terms”. Two intelligence sources told Agence France-Presse that the rockets were launched from inside the autonomous region. And an American officer said the projectiles were 107-millimeter rockets that had been fired a distance of eight kilometers west of Erbil.
Western military and diplomatic installations have been targeted in Iraq since the fall of 2019 by dozens of rockets as well as bomb attacks on the road network, but most of these actions were carried out in Baghdad. Iranian missiles were, however, fired at Erbil airport in January 2020, a few days after the murder of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani by an American drone strike in Baghdad.
2,500 American soldiers in Iraq
Rockets were then fired regularly against the American embassy in the Iraqi capital, with American and Iraqi officials blaming pro-Iranian militias, such as the Kataeb Hezbollah group or Asaïb Ahl al-Haq. These groups are fighting against the US-led coalition, which has been operating in Iraq since 2014 to help local forces in their fight against the jihadist Islamic State (IS) group. Since Iraq declared victory over ISIS at the end of 2017, foreign troops have been reduced to 3,500 soldiers, including 2,500 Americans.
Almost all of these foreign units are stationed in the military complex at Erbil airport, a coalition source told Agence France-Presse. Despite the gradual withdrawal of foreign troops, rocket attacks continued, much to the dismay of the United States. Washington had threatened in October to close its embassy if the attacks did not stop. After which several pro-Iran Iraqi factions agreed to a negotiated truce under the aegis of the Iraqi government. The rocket fire has almost stopped.
But there have been several violations nonetheless, the most recent before Monday night’s attack in Erbil has been the firing of several rockets at the US embassy in late December. Monday’s shooting came amid growing tensions in northern Iraq, where neighboring Turkey is waging intense fighting against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara calls “terrorist”. Turkey regularly carries out attacks in the mountainous areas of northern Iraq against the rear bases of the PKK, which since 1984 has delivered a bloody guerrilla war on Turkish soil which has claimed more than 40,000 lives.
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