Rockets hit near Baghdad airport

BAGHDAD: Three rockets hit near Baghdad airport overnight without causing any damage, Iraq´s security forces said on Tuesday, marking the fourth such attack in just over a week. A statement from the Iraqi military said the Katyusha-type projectiles were fired from the southwestern edges of Baghdad, where security forces found more rockets set up on wooden platforms.

It follows a string of similar incidents, including a rocket attack on June 13 that hit an Iraqi base north of Baghdad where US-led coalition troops are based. On June 8, two rockets struck the grounds of the Baghdad airport complex and an unguided rocket hit near the US embassy in Iraq´s high-security Green Zone two days later. Such attacks are rarely claimed, but Washington has blamed pro-Iran factions in Iraq, primarily Kataeb Hezbollah. Since late 2019, more than 30 rocket attacks have targeted Iraqi installations hosting foreign diplomats or troops. Tensions reached boiling point in January when the US killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a drone strike in Baghdad. Outraged, Iraqi MPs voted to oust foreign troops while the US threatened to slap crippling sanctions on Baghdad.

Iraq summons Turkish ambassador to protest air strikes: Baghdad on Tuesday handed a formal letter of protest to the Turkish ambassador after summoning him over air strikes perpetrated by Ankara against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. Iraq´s foreign ministry said in a statement it condemned “a violation of (its) sovereignty” during a Turkish aerial operation against bases of the Kurdistan Workers´ Party (PKK). The PKK, which has fought an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, is banned as a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies. PKK bases are not explicitly authorised but are implicitly tolerated by an autonomous Kurdish administration in northern Iraq.