Saturday, December 27, 2025
21.0°F

Iraqi officials: 3 dead, 2 wounded in Baghdad rocket attack

Associated Press | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 5 years, 3 months AGO
by Associated Press
| September 28, 2020 9:06 AM

BAGHDAD (AP) — Three Iraqi civilians were killed and two severely wounded Monday after a katyusha rocket hit near Baghdad airport, two Iraqi security officials said. It was the first time in months an attack caused civilian casualties.

The rocket targeted the international airport but struck a residential home close by instead, the two officials said. They requested anonymity in line with regulations. A child was among the dead, the officials said.

The rocket was launched from the al-Jihad neighborhood of Baghdad, the officials said.

The attacks have become a frequent occurrence, often targeting the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, within the heavily fortified Green Zone, and U.S. troops present in Iraqi bases as well as the Baghdad airport. Roadside bombs have also frequently targeted convoys carrying equipment destined for U.S.-led coalition forces.

Previous attacks have caused minor damage but rarely deaths or injuries.

The frequency of the rockets have strained Iraq-U.S. relations, prompting the Trump administration last week to threaten to close its diplomatic mission in Baghdad if Shiite militia groups believed to be orchestrating them are not reigned in.

The disparate nature of Shiite militias following the U.S. assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani and Iranian militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis has complicated Iraqi efforts to clamp down on rogue armed elements.

A government raid on the powerful Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah, suspected of launching rocket attacks, backfired when those detained were released for want of evidence.

___

Abdul-Zahra reported from Boston.

ARTICLES BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

August 18, 2021 12:03 a.m.

Hong Kong police arrest 4 from university student union

HONG KONG (AP) — Four members of a Hong Kong university student union were arrested Wednesday for allegedly advocating terrorism by paying tribute to a person who stabbed a police officer and then killed himself, police said.

July 25, 2021 12:09 a.m.

For South Sudan mothers, COVID-19 shook a fragile foundation

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Paska Itwari Beda knows hunger all too well. The young mother of five children — all of them under age 10 — sometimes survives on one bowl of porridge a day, and her entire family is lucky to scrape together a single daily meal, even with much of the money Beda makes cleaning offices going toward food. She goes to bed hungry in hopes her children won’t have to work or beg like many others in South Sudan, a country only a decade old and already ripped apart by civil war.

July 24, 2021 12:09 a.m.

For South Sudan mothers, COVID-19 shook a fragile foundation

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Paska Itwari Beda knows hunger all too well. The young mother of five children — all of them under age 10 — sometimes survives on one bowl of porridge a day, and her entire family is lucky to scrape together a single daily meal, even with much of the money Beda makes cleaning offices going toward food. She goes to bed hungry in hopes her children won’t have to work or beg like many others in South Sudan, a country only a decade old and already ripped apart by civil war.