Baghdad | Six rockets were fired Friday at dawn at Baghdad International Airport in Iraq, causing no casualties but damaging a civilian plane, two security sources said.
The six rockets fell on parking lots or runways, according to one of the sources. “A civilian plane (empty) was hit and damaged,” the source told the Interior Ministry.
The second source confirmed an attack carried out with six rockets against civilian installations at the airport, also stating that a parked plane had been damaged.
The damaged aircraft, a Boeing 767 grounded for repairs for some time, belongs to the Iraqi airline, according to a third source at the airport.
The attack was not immediately claimed.
In recent weeks, rocket fire or booby-trap drone strikes have targeted the US embassy in the ultra-secure “green zone” in Baghdad, a US diplomatic center located in part of the airport and troops from the international coalition anti-jihadists stationed on Iraqi bases.
On January 3, the US military shot down two drone bombs targeting the anti-jihadist coalition at Baghdad airport, according to a coalition source. The drones targeted the “Diplomatic Support Center”, attached to the American embassy, and which houses coalition personnel as well as “contractors and civilian personnel”.
About ten days later, on January 13, three people, including two children, were injured by a rocket that fell on a school located in the Green Zone of Baghdad, while two other rockets fell in the complex from the American Embassy, without causing any injuries.
Never claimed, these attacks are systematically attributed by the United States to pro-Iran Iraqi factions, which have constantly demanded the departure of all American troops stationed in Iraq as part of the coalition led by Washington to fight against the Islamic State (IS) group.