Rocket strikes on US in Iraq seen as ‘message from Iran’
BAGHDAD - Renewed rocket attacks on US targets in Iraq show Iran-aligned factions are heaping pressure on the government while Tehran may be seeking leverage over America’s new administration, analysts say.
Iraq, scarred by decades of war and insurgency, has been a strategic battleground for arch-foes the United States and Iran, both allies of Baghdad who remain sharply at odds over Iran’s nuclear programme.
Analysts and officials in Iraq say the resumption of attacks after four months of relative calm shows that Iran and its Iraqi allies are now abandoning de-escalation and seeking leverage over their rivals.
“It seems we’re back to last year,”
a senior US military official in Iraq told AFP, referring to several months in 2020 when rockets rained down on American sites once a week or more.
On Monday, two rockets hit near the US embassy in Baghdad, days
after a volley hit an airbase further north where a US military contractor is maintaining F-16 fighter-jets purchased from Washington.
Rockets also hit a military complex in the Kurdish region’s capital Arbil on February 15, killing
a civilian and a foreign contractor working with US-led troops.
The incidents were consistent with the dozens of attacks last year, which usually involved a score of 107mm rockets fired from a truck, security officials said.
This year, the pro-Iran groups typically blamed for such attacks - including Kataeb Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl al-Haq -- have been quick to condemn the strikes.
Security sources, however, are not convinced.
“All indications are it’s the same style of attacks,” said the US official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“And intelligence shared with us says there are more to come.”
Both local and international dynamics may have prompted the resumed attacks.
There are “domestic considerations” as Iraqi armed groups are keen to challenge Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi’s assertion that he can rein them in, said Aniseh Bassiri of the Royal United Service Institute.
“They want to remind everyone they have not disappeared and show the PM they have not been restrained,” she told AFP.
With parliamentary elections scheduled for October, these factions, whose political branches are running at the polls, are flexing their muscles, Bassiri added.