Sulaimaniyah, Iraq – This was the worst attack on the U.S.-led coalition since the Biden administration seized power with questions going through about who was responsible for the rare rocket block on the city of Erbil.
A volley of projectiles was aimed at the main military base inside Erbil airport, which will host foreign troops deployed as part of the U.S.-led coalition that has helped Iraq fighting the armed group ISIL (ISIS) since 2014.
But the rockets hit across the northwest region early Tuesday, killing a foreign civilian contractor and injuring at least nine others, including an American soldier.
Civilian areas near the facility were also hit. One of those injured was in a state of emergency, Aso Hawezi said, referring to the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) health ministry on Wednesday.
A shadow group known as Awliya al-Dam – or Blood Defenders – claimed responsibility and said it would continue to attack “resident” American forces in Iraq.
The attack was the first in nearly two months after a series of similar incidents – blamed on pro-Iranian Shia militias – were directed to Western military bases or diplomatic missions in Iraq from 2019.
UN warns Iraq could go out of control after rocket attack on Kurdish regional capital Erbil kills one civilian and injures several others [File: Safin Hamed/AFP]Major security breach
While attacks on U.S. interests in Iraq have been common over the past few years, it is very rare for such incidents to occur in Erbil or the KRG in general.
An official from KRG’s Peshmerga forces, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media, told Al Jazeera that the rocket barrier represented a “major security breach for all major Kurdish security agencies”.
“It is not clear how the rockets entered the area, but it is possible that workers within the security of the Kurdistan Region and Peshmerga forces cooperated with the manufacturers,” the source said.
According to the official, the rockets were collected outside the territory of the Kurdistan Provincial Government and then brought into the area. They were launched from a fruit and vegetable market located 7 kilometers (3 miles) away from Erbil city center, he said.
“The range of rockets is 8km [3.5 miles] and the PMF often uses rockets like that, ”he said, referring to the Popular Movement Forces, Iraqi paramilitaries established in 2014 from mostly Shia militia groups to fight ISIL.
“Following this security crash, all chief information officers in Erbil should at least be fired,” the official said, adding that there is a financial crisis and internal conflict. affect Peshmerga’s ability to fulfill its security obligation in the semi-independent sector.
In a statement on Tuesday, a ministry within the KRG confirmed that the rockets were launched from within Iraq’s Kurdish region and that a pick-up truck – from which the rockets were believed to have been launched – was seized – to seek.
Smoke rises above Erbil after rocket attacks near airport on February 15, 2021 [Thaier al-Sudani/Reuters]Who is behind it?
The official spokesman for the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Mahmoud Mohammed, said in a statement that a group of fighters with links to Iraq’s PMF were to blame.
PMF, also known as the Hashd al-Shaabi, was formally part of the Iraqi armed forces after its founding but spawned other armed groups, including pro-Iranian groups, which is ideologically attached to it.
Mohammed condemned the “heinous act of terrorism” and called on the federal government, the international coalition, and the United States to immediately investigate the incident and punish the perpetrators.
The PMF, meanwhile, denied claims that its bodies had carried out the attack.
Sayed Ali Hosseini, head of alliance at the PMF’s North Front, dismissed the allegations, saying his forces had not been in the area where the 14 rockets were fired.
“The PMF is not identified in the area since the rockets were launched, so we will dismiss those allegations that accuse us of being behind the attacks,” Hosseini said. to Al Jazeera in a phone interview.
“We will file a lawsuit against anyone who accuses us of unprovoked attacks,” he said.
New armed groups
Hosseini said he did not know Awliya al-Dam and questioned whether the little-known group had carried out the attack.
Erbil’s security steering group, the U.S. general consulate in Erbil, and the U.S.-led coalition did not respond to requests for comment.
Over the past year, several new armed groups have claimed responsibility for rocket attacks on Western diplomatic and security bases in Iraq.
U.S. and Iraqi security officials say these are the antithesis of anti-Iran groups, including major armed groups such as Kataib Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl al-Haq.
Man in hospital bed after injured in rocket attack on US-led forces at Erbil Airport [File: Azad Lashkari/Reuters]‘Loss of awakening’
According to Caroline Rose, a senior analyst at the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington, the attack sent a message of fear to both the Biden administration and the Iraqi federal government.
She said it appeared that pro-Iranian militias could attack anywhere in Iraq, adding that no situation in the US was safe – even in the KRG.
“The fact that this group [Awliya al-Dam] Being relatively knowledgeable with security experts does not mean that it is not affiliated with Iraqi-based militias, ”Rose told Al Jazeera via Twitter.
“However, Iran and its agents rooted within the PMF have embarked on a new practice of creating a series of offshoot groups to carry out attacks as we have seen in Erbil to stifle lines of duty and to create a cover of credible credentials so that Iraq the federal government and the US cannot easily enforce accountability, ”she said.
According to Rose, the incident was “an awakened call for the Biden administration to assemble a country-specific Iraqi policy”, she said, adding that the new U.S. administration has been made aware “it must walk carefully”.
Get out of the US
In December 2019, a U.S. contractor was killed in a rocket attack on a base in Kirkuk province, prompting the U.S. to respond with airstrikes against Kataib Hezbollah who wanted Iran.
Approximately 5,200 U.S. troops were deployed in Iraq to fight ISIL in 2014. But since Iraq won the group in late 2017, Washington has reduced the number of American troops with just 2,500 remaining .
Calls for the complete removal of U.S. troops on the rise after rocket attacks on U.S. military and diplomatic sites and the American assassination of Iran’s elite Quds army chief, General Qassem Soleimani, and deputy commander Hashd al- Shaabi in Iraq, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in his drone strike near Baghdad airport in January last year.
But instead of immediately withdrawing from Erbil, Rose said: “The US should try to hold those responsible for the attack accountable and work to support the government. Federal Iraq in studying and linking the dots between the PMF, Kataib Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al. -Haq, and its results. “