Fresh rocket attack targets Iraqi base housing US contractors

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Two people were wounded late Sunday in a rocket attack targeting the Balad Air Base, an Iraqi military facility that houses US contractors located north of the capital, Baghdad, a security source told Kurdistan 24.

The source explained that four rockets were fired at the airbase, with two of them landing inside the facility near its cafeteria, wounding two people and causing material damage.

The other rockets struck outside the base. Civil defense teams rushed to the site to put out the fires that ensued.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

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Balad Air Base, located in Salahuddin province, was a staging ground for the International Coalition and Iraqi F-16s in the war against the so-called Islamic State. It previously housed a small unit of the US Air Force but now hosts the Iraqi Armed Forces and US Sallyport contractors tasked with maintaining Iraqi F-16s.

The base had been subjected to similar attacks by armed Shia groups affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces. The Islamic State has taken responsibility for several attacks in the past as well.

Local officials have repeatedly blamed Iran-backed militia groups for attacks on bases housing international coalition forces.

Editing by Khrush Najari