COMMENT Two men stand on February 16, 2021 near the scene of a rocket attack targeting Arbil the previous night, the first time in nearly two months that Western military or diplomatic installations have been targeted in Iraq I’VE lost count of how many times Erbil airport has been my entry and exit point in Iraq. Located in the northern semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of the country, the city is generally regarded as comparatively safe, even if things have become a bit more edgy there of late. While arriving or departing, from the airport’s concourse it’s not unusual to see US Apache and Blackhawk helicopters take off or land at the American military base that sits adjacent to the airport and forms part of international efforts to combat the Islamic State (IS) group.