Rocket kings fell on the night of Thursday 23 to Friday 24 April on Baghdad airport where American soldiers are stationed, the latest episode of tensions between Iran and the United States in Iraq caught in a vice between its two allies. The projectiles hit the section of the air base occupied by Iraqi troops – who share space with the soldiers deployed by Washington as part of the anti-jihadist coalition – an official of the military services told Agence France-Presse. security on condition of anonymity. An Iraqi soldier was injured, he added.
This is the second rocket attack targeting the Americans in less than a week: Sunday, five rockets had targeted another air base north of Baghdad, wounding three Iraqi soldiers and two foreign contractors. The attack was not immediately claimed, but Washington regularly accuses Iraqi armed groups close to Iran, the enemy of the United States, of targeting its troops and diplomats in Iraq.
In total, around twenty bomb or rocket attacks have targeted bases housing American soldiers or American diplomatic representations since Joe Biden came to power at the end of January. And dozens more have taken place since fall 2019 under Donald Trump’s administration. In mid-April, the attacks reached a new level: for the first time pro-Iran Iraqi factions carried out a suicide drone attack on an American headquarters at Erbil airport, in Iraqi Kurdistan (North). And this, in the midst of tensions between Washington and Tehran over the issue of Iranian nuclear power.
Iranian nuclear tensions
During the attacks for a year, two foreign contractors, an Iraqi contractor and eight Iraqi civilians were killed. These shootings are sometimes claimed by obscure groups, in reality false noses of pro-Iran armed groups present for a long time in the country, say the experts, citing the speeches of their leaders who regularly threaten to “strike more often and more strong ”the 2,500 American soldiers still stationed in Iraq.
On April 7, Washington and Baghdad resumed their “strategic dialogue” which should give rise to a timetable for the withdrawal of the international coalition that came to fight the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) in 2014. If the two parties ensure that they agree on the principle, however, its implementation could take years, assure officials on both sides.
Sworn enemies, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States both have a presence or allies in Iraq. Iran has among others the support of Hachd al-Chaabi, a coalition of paramilitary groups integrated into the state. The Iraqi government of Mustafa al-Kazimi, which passes for more pro-American than its predecessor, is regularly threatened by the pro-Iran.
With each deadly attack, Washington promises to make Iran pay a heavy price. In January 2020, such a spiral nearly escalated into open conflict in Iraq, after an American drone killed the powerful Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad, in response to the deaths of Americans in Iraq.
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