KABUL (Pajhwok): A rocket attack killed a civilian contractor with the American-led military coalition and wounded six others, including a US service member in Iraqi city of Erbil on Monday.
Aimed at the airport, several other rockets landed in residential areas of the city, including one close to the Chinese Consulate.
Minutes after the attack, 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.
The military side of Erbil’s airport is one of three remaining bases with a significant number of US 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 counter-terrorism 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.”
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, prime minister of the Kurdish Region of Iraq, said he had spoken with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken about cooperating to find those responsible for the attack.
Blinken later condemned the attack.“We are outraged by today’s rocket attack in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region,” he said in a statement Monday evening.
Hr/ma
