Rocket Attack Near Erbil International Airport in Iraq
A civilian contractor was killed and a US service member was injured along with five other contractors when rocket fire landed on coalition forces near Erbil International Airport in Iraq, said Col. Wayne Marotto, the spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve.
“Initial reports that Indirect Fire landed on Coalition Forces in Erbil tonight. There was 1 civilian contractor killed, 5 civilian contractors injured and 1 US service member injured. More information to follow,” Marotto wrote on Twitter.
According to initial reports, four of the five injured contractors are American citizens, a defense official told our reporters.
The nationality of the contractor killed was not disclosed though the defense official said initial reports suggest they were not American.
Earlier a statement from the Interior Ministry of the Kurdistan Regional Government said several rockets had been launched toward the city.
Video from the scene showed at least one of the rockets landed on a busy urban street, sending a cloud of sparks and smoke into the air.
The regional government called for locals to stay home as authorities investigated the incident. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The US is currently gathering intelligence to try to determine where the rockets were launched from, the defense official said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Monday evening that the US is “outraged” by the attack.
“We express our condolences to the loved ones of the civilian contractor killed in this attack, and to the innocent Iraqi people and their families who are suffering these ruthless acts of violence,” he said.
Blinken spoke with Masrour Barzani, the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, to discuss the attack and pledge support “for all efforts to investigate and hold accountable those responsible.”
The last rocket attack on US troops in Erbil was in September last year, when three rockets struck the US base in the area, while three more landed nearby. No US personnel were injured in that attack, and there were no reports of damage. Suspicion immediately fell on Iranian-backed militias, since the rockets were fired from an area under the control of a predominantly Shia paramilitary force, Hashad al Shabbi, according to the to the Interior Ministry of the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Erbil, which is located in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region and hosts US troops, is expected to be one of several cities Pope Francis visits in early March in a historic trip to Iraq.
That attack came one day after the Trump administration had told Iraqi leaders that it would close the US embassy in Baghdad if Iranian-backed militias kept targeting US personnel in the country. The threat followed the decision to withdraw thousands of US troops from Iraq in September, bringing the total number from 5,200 troops to approximately 3,000.
The number was further reduced to 2,500 shortly before President Joe Biden took office. The acting secretary of defense at the time, Christopher Miller, had said the drawdown was in response to the “increased capabilities of the Iraqi security forces.”
