Several rockets hit Iraq military complex housing US forces

Baghdad: Several rockets slammed into an Iraqi military complex that hosts US forces next to Baghdad International Airport on Monday, wounding six Iraqi troops, the military said. Security forces found launchers with rockets that had not been fired properly, indicating a larger attack was planned, a military statement said. It is the latest in an uptick in rocket attacks targeting either Iraqi bases where American troops are located or the US Embassy in Baghdad. US defence officials have blamed several on factions in Iraq. Security sources said that the wounded in Monday’s attack belong to Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service, an elite unit that was created and trained by US forces. Two of them are in critical condition, the sources said.

The military complex also hosts a small group of US soldiers and American diplomats. There have been at least nine attacks against US targets in Iraq in the span of six weeks. There have been no claims of responsibility and no US forces have been wounded. Security sources have linked at least one last week to Kataib Hizbullah, a powerful faction blacklisted by Washington. A US defence official said the rocket attacks made the Hashed al Shaabi, a security force largely made up of militias, a bigger security threat to American troops in Iraq than the IS group, the movement which the US has vowed to help Baghdad wipe out. On Friday the United States imposed sanctions on three senior Hashed figures. — AFP