Rockets target Baghdad International Airport, no casualties reported

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Two rockets targeted Baghdad International Airport on Sunday evening, state media has said, citing Iraq’s Security Media Cell. 

Iraqi Security Forces managed to destroy one of the rockets before it reached the airport, which hosts US troops, the media cell told state media. No casualties have been reported. 

The attack is the latest of several attacks on Iraqi bases in recent weeks.

Rocket attacks widely blamed by pro-Iran militias take place frequently across Iraq.

Three rockets landed near the airport on April 23.

Rockets also hit Balad Air Base in Iraq's Salahaddin province on April 18, injuring two members of Iraq’s security forces.

Attacks on Iraqi bases hosting US troops have increased since the US assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad in January 2020, leading to a non-binding parliamentary resolution to expel all foreign troops from the country.

Erbil is also vulnerable to attack, hosting US-led coalition troops at the airport. The city’s international airport was hit by an explosives-laden drone on April 14.

Iran’s most senior economic official in Iraq, and former ambassador to Baghdad, Hassan Danaeifar said in April that the US will still face attacks in Iraq, even if they “concentrate their troops more in the Kurdistan Region,” claiming that Iraqi youth do not want foreign troops to be present in the country.