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It is too early to say whether Iran led the attack, the person said, but previous attacks by militias against US and coalition forces in Iraq have been linked to Tehran.
A total of five Americans were injured in the attack: four civilian contractors and one serviceman, according to two defense officials. In addition, a non-US contractor was killed and two non-US contractors were injured.
At least two civilians were also injured and property damage to cars and other property, security officials said, without providing further details. A statement from the Kurdistan Interior Ministry said that “several people” were injured on the basis of a preliminary investigation. The rockets were launched from an area south of Irbil near the border with Kirkuk province and landed on some residential areas near the airport.
Officials spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with regulations.
Iraqi President Barham Saleh condemned the attack, saying in a statement posted online that it was a “dangerous escalation”.
According to a statement from the Ministry of the Interior, the Kurdish authorities are warning the residents of Irbil to stay away from the targeted areas and to stay at home.
Attacks on Irbil airport are rare. Monday’s attack was the first to hit the region in five months.
On September 30, when six rockets hit near the airport. Kurdish authorities said they were thrown from a van in the nearby town of Bartella in the province of Nineveh, which is under federal government control. The Kurdish authorities had blamed the Shiite militia groups.
Hoshiyar Zebari, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s political bureau, said security officials were investigating the source of the attack. “There will be consequences against the culprits. This aggression will not hold up, ”he tweeted.
Rocket attacks frequently target the US presence in Baghdad, including the US embassy, as well as convoys carrying materials for the US-led coalition.
The frequency of attacks declined late last year before Biden’s inauguration. The United States, under the previous Trump administration, accused Iranian-backed groups of carrying out the attacks. Tensions have soared after a Washington-led drone strike that killed Iranian General Qassim Soleimani and powerful Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis last year.
Trump had said the death of an American entrepreneur would be a red line and cause an American escalation in Iraq. The December 2019 assassination of an American civilian contractor in a rocket attack in Kirkuk sparked a bitter battle on Iraqi soil that brought the country to the brink of a proxy war.
US forces have been drastically reduced in Iraq to 2,500 and are no longer participating in combat missions with Iraqi forces in ongoing operations against ISIS.
Natasha Bertrand contributed to this report.
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