Baghdad:
At least 3 rockets targeted the Arbil airport in northern Iraq, one of which hit a military complicated exactly where US-led coalition troops are based, safety sources stated on Monday.
The indirect fire represents the very first time US military or diplomatic installations have been targeted in Iraq in practically two months.
At about 9:30 pm (1830 GMT), an AFP reporter heard many loud explosions in the northwestern outskirts of Arbil, the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan area.
Iraqi and Western safety sources told AFP that at least 3 rockets had been fired in the path of the airport.
Two hit residential neighbourhoods on Arbil’s outskirts.
There was no instant data on casualties.
Western military and diplomatic web sites have been targeted by dozens of rockets and roadside bomb attacks considering that the autumn of 2019, but most of the violence has taken spot in Baghdad.
Both American and Iraqi officials have blamed hardline armed groups, which includes the pro-Iran faction Kataeb Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl al-Haq.
These groups are vehemently opposed to the US-led coalition, which has been based in Iraq considering that 2014 to support nearby forces fight back the Islamic State group.
With IS largely defeated, the coalition has drawn down to beneath 3,500 forces in total, 2,500 of which are US troops.
Most of these units are concentrated at the military complicated at the Arbil airport, a coalition supply told AFP.
But most rocket attacks had concentrated on the coalition and US diplomatic personnel based in Baghdad.
In October, the US threatened to close its embassy there if the rocket attacks did not cease, so hardline groups agreed to an indefinite truce.
There have been many violations considering that then, the most current of which, prior to Monday evening, was a volley of rockets targeting the US embassy on December 20.
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