Sangar Khaleel and
ERBIL, Iraq — A rocket attack on the airport in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil on Monday killed a civilian contractor with the American-led military coalition and wounded six others, including a U.S. service member, according to a coalition spokesman.
Several other rockets landed in residential areas of the city, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, including one close to the Chinese Consulate.
The attack, rare in the normally peaceful Kurdish city, raised tensions already heightened by threats of Iran-backed militias on American targets in Iraq. It was not clear who carried it out, but previous attacks have been attributed to militias funded and directed by Iran.
Iran has made clear that it intends to retaliate further for the American drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020 that killed a top Iranian general, Qassim Suleimani, and a senior Iraqi security official. Days after that strike, the Iranian government launched missile attacks against U.S. forces at the Ain al Assad air base in Iraq’s Anbar Province, wounding more than 100 troops.
On Monday, minutes after the rocket attack on Erbil, the Kurdish regional government called on residents to stay indoors and the international airport canceled departing and arriving flights.
The United States military has drawn down the number of its troops in Iraq to under 2,500 and has pulled out of several bases there over the past two years. It says Iraq no longer needs the help it did in the past to fight the Islamic State, though American officials have acknowledged that militia attacks also factored into the decision to move troops to bases more easily defended.
The military side of Erbil’s airport is one of three remaining bases with a significant number of U.S. troops. It was not clear whether anti-rocket defense systems installed at the base were activated by Monday’s attack.
The coalition did not reveal the nationality of the civilian contractor who was killed.
The Kurdish ministry of health said three civilians were wounded in Monday’s attack.
Kurdish counterterrorism forces said they had found the vehicle the rockets were launched from but did not say where it was discovered.
A little-known group known as Awliya al Dam (Guardian of the Blood) brigades claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had launched the rockets in revenge for the deaths of “the martyred leaders.” The group claimed responsibility last August for two bombings targeting U.S. contractor convoys carrying military equipment.
In Washington, a White House spokesman said President Biden had been briefed on the attack in Erbil, but offered no other comment or details. Masrour Barzani, president of the Kurdish Region of Iraq, said in a Tweet that he had spoken with Secretary of State Antony Blinken about cooperating to find those responsible for the attack.
Michael Knights, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that the size and scope of the rocket attack on Erbil was unusually large, and that it had most likely been intended to maim or kill American contractors or service members, or their Kurdish allies.
“This is a test of the new Biden administration to see what they can get away with,” Mr. Knights said in a telephone interview.
Iraqi leaders have traveled to Tehran to try to persuade Iran to call off attacks, saying conflict between Washington and Tehran left Iraq dangerously in the middle. The embassy in Baghdad continues to operate with the ambassador and a small number of key staff.
Sangar Khaleel reported from Erbil, Iraq, and Jane Arraf from Amman, Jordan. Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.
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