PM Masrour Barzani (right) during a meeting with US Antony Blinken. (Photo: Archive)
WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24) – “We are outraged by today’s rocket attack in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a written statement following a phone conversation with the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Masrour Barzani, late on Monday.
Two rockets fell earlier that evening on Erbil International Airport, where the US-led Coalition maintains a military base – one of three to which it has moved troops as it consolidates its position in Iraq. A third rocket fell on a busy street in a residential area two kilometers south of the airport, while another landed close to the Chinese consulate.
The militaries of Iran and Russia today held joint naval drills in the Indian ocean Maritime Security Belt Exercise aims to enhance security of maritime trade
The drills are expected to last for three days, and the Indian Navy will join in
Comes after more than a dozen rockets fired at Erbil International Airport in Iraq
Attack claimed by Guardians of Blood, believed to be front for pro-Iran faction
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Iraq watchers are debating the fallout from another lethal attack on US forces, probably involving an Iran-backed militia. That assumption is based on its similarity to dozens of other incidents.
We have no choice but to strengthen our efforts to root out the forces of terror
Iraqi President Barham Salih
But this attack is significant for several reasons.
Firstly, it was launched inside the semi-autonomous Kurdish Region of Iraq, an area long considered isolated from the militia violence and terrorism that has haunted much of the country since 2003.
Previous attacks often took place in remote areas where US-led Coalition forces were assisting the Iraqi army in the fight against ISIS.
January 24, 2021
A Twitter account linked to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was on Friday banned by the microblogging site for posting an image, in which former US President Donald Trump was shown playing golf in the shadow of a giant drone.
The image posted on Thursday (January 21), with the caption “Revenge is certain”
written in Farsi, suggests a retaliatory attack on Trump for ordering last year’s drone strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.
On January 3, 2020, Iran’s top commander Major General Qassem Soleimani was on his way to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi in Baghdad, when he was killed in a US drone strike near the Baghdad International Airport.
February 3, 2021 at 4:12 pm | Published in: Iraq, Middle East, News
Members of the Hashed al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on October 26, 2019. [AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images] February 3, 2021 at 4:12 pm
Iraq s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) said yesterday that five of their fighters were killed in an attack by Daesh in the north-eastern governorate of Diyala.
They added that the fighters died as their forces were subjected to a surprise attack that led combat with Daesh remnants.
The Popular Mobilisation Forces are currently pursuing Daesh fighters with the aim of eliminating their presence.
Daesh was said to be defeated at the end of 2017 although sleeper cells remain scattered across Iraq and eastern Syria.