Two rockets landed yesterday in a rural area near an Iraqi military airbase that housed some US contractors. Fortunately, no casualties or injuries were recorded. Iraqi security forces reported that the rockets landed on the base's outer fence.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the attack was aimed at Balad Air Base, north of Baghdad, but the rockets failed to hit the al-Bu Asi village just to the southeast.
The last attack on Balad air base was on March 15 when at least five rockets hit the base.
Iraqi security forces said no armed groups at present claimed responsibility for the attack even though Iranian-backed militias had carried out similar attacks in the past.
Adding to the dose were US officials who openly blamed Iranian-backed militias for regular missile strikes on US facilities in Iraq. Not least the attack near the US embassy in Baghdad.
The paramilitary groups, sympathetic to Iran, have publicly demanded that all foreign troops, including US forces that are about 2.500 in Iraq, leave the country, calling their presence a real occupation.
A US-led coalition, whose mission is to fight Islamic State militants, is still stationed in Iraq, as is a NATO-led mission training Iraqi security forces.