Rockets targeted US embassy in Baghdad in sixth recent incident
Reports say that this is the first attack since Iraq had its new prime minister sworn in on May 7.
By SETH J. FRANTZMANUS Army soldiers keep watch on the US embassy compound in Baghdad, Iraq January 1, 2020(photo credit: DOD/LT. COL. ADRIAN WEALE/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)
Two rockets were fired at Baghdad’s Green Zone on Wednesday night. This is the latest in a series of attacks that have included rockets aimed and fired at US forces at Camp Taji, as well as rocket attacks on the US embassy in Baghdad and near the international airport. Other attacks took place on June 8, June 10, June 13, June 14 and June 16.Reports say that this is the first attack since Iraq had its new prime minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, sworn in on May 7. In fact the number is much higher: It is the sixth incident of this in just the last eleven days. Most of the rocket attacks are similar, using the 107 mm rockets that are popular in Iran and among Iranian proxies, and attaching them to a firing tube with a battery of some sort that sets them off.The attacks come amid rising US tensions.A new, and probably partly fictitious group, called Osbat al-Thaereen (the Movement of the Revolutionary Association) has claimed responsibility. This group is likely made up of cadres linked to the Iranian IRGC or Kataib Hezbollah, which the US has blamed in the past for attacks.Nevertheless, the group put out a nice manifesto and poster showing its fighters with drones and weapons and it has put up old videos of attacks on US forces. This is the same style that Kataib Hezbollah, Harakat Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl al-Haq use, harkening back to the days of 2006-2008 when these Iranian-backed groups used to attack US forces. Osbat al-Thaereen is even trying to portray itself as linked to Sunni jihadists, not Iran, by using an old video of Ansar al-Sunna, a Sunni group.Overall the attacks on the Green Zone, airport and Camp Taji appear to send a message to the US and its forces. Pro-Iranian parties want the America to leave. Others want to undermine the new prime minister. Nothing is clear in Iraq and none of the culprits have been arrested.Since last June, there have been dozens of attacks like these rocket attacks; the number is probably more than fifty by now. There have been four killed: three members of the coalition in March and one contractor in December. The US has retaliated twice, in addition to killing Kataib Hezbollah leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and IRGC head Qasem Soleimani.
