Baghdad Airport under rocket attack

Rocket attack at Baghdad - image Anadolu Agency

The attack took place in the early hours after midnight when the rockets launched from al-Makasib neighborhood in western Baghdad on the airport, the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a statement. There are conflicting reports as to whether there were three missiles or two.
Security forces immediately launched a search campaign in the area and found wooden structures used as bases to fix the rocket launchers with a number of unfired rockets, the JOC statement added.

This attack follows a similar attack which targeted US forces at the airport on June 8.

On June 13, the Al-Taji military base north of Baghdad, which accommodates US forces, was also targeted.

The attack came five days after U.S and Iraqi officials held a strategic video dialogue, where the United States pledged to continue cutting down on its forces in Iraq and confirmed that it does not seek permanent military presence in the country.

The Iraqi-U.S. relations have witnessed a tension since Jan. 3 when a U.S. drone struck a convoy at Baghdad's airport, which killed Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces.

International intelligence sources said the attacks were conducted by suspected Iranian-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Unit (PMU) militia forces
European regulator EASA has extended its NOTAM for Iraqi airspace warning of threat and risk below FL32 (approx. 32,000 feet) while IS and Canada has advised against conducting flights within the Baghdad FIR airspace.