Three missiles hit Baghdad airport by the US forces – Al-Akhbar

A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the shells hit the air base section, which is occupied by Iraqi soldiers – who share the space with soldiers deployed by Washington in the context of the anti-jihadist coalition.

This is the second missile strike against the Americans in less than a week. On Sunday, five missiles hit an air base in northern Baghdad, wounding three Iraqi soldiers and two foreigners.

The attack was not immediately announced, but Washington regularly accuses Iraqi armed groups close to Iran of attacking its army and diplomats in Iraq.

In all, about 20 bomb or missile attacks have struck bases housing US soldiers or diplomatic representatives since Joe Biden took office in late January. Dozens more have occurred since fall of 2019, under the Donald Trump administration.

The attacks reached a new level in mid-April, as the pro-Iranian Iraqi factions carried out a suicide attack with drones for the first time in a US barracks at Erbil airport in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Mysterious groups often claim responsibility for the attacks, which mask the long-established pro-Iranian armed groups in Iraq, experts say, citing speeches from their leaders when they threaten to “attack more than 2,500 American military personnel repeatedly and with greater force.” Americans are still stationed in Iraq.

On April 7, Washington and Baghdad resumed the “strategic dialogue” that should lead to a timetable for the withdrawal of the international coalition that, since 2014, has been fighting the “jihadist” Islamic State.

Both the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States have presence or allies in Iraq.

Iran counts, among other things, with support from the Hashd al-Shaabi, a coalition of paramilitary groups incorporated in the state, and the Iraqi government of Mustafa al-Kazemi, which is considered more pro-American than its predecessor, is regularly threatened.

With each deadly attack, Washington pledges to make Iran pay a heavy price, and in January 2020, this escalating tension was on the verge of turning into open conflict in Iraq, when a US drone killed the powerful Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad in response. On the killing of many Americans in Iraq.