Northern Iraq rocket attack kills US contractor

>>BAGHDAD: A rocket attack in northern Iraq killed an American contractor and wounded several military personnel on Friday, the first US casualties from a string of recent strikes, the international coalition against the Islamic State (IS) group said.

While the coalition did not attribute blame for the incident, it threatens to escalate already-high tensions between Washington and Tehran, which backs various paramilitary groups in Iraq that the United States has accused of being behind rocket attacks on its interests.

“One US civilian contractor was killed and several US service members and Iraqi personnel were wounded in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base in Kirkuk,” the US-led coalition said in a statement.

Federal security forces and Shia militia units — as well as IS group sleeper cells — all have a presence in volatile Kirkuk province, which is claimed by both Iraq’s Kurdish minority and Arab majority.

“Iraqi Security Forces are leading the response and investigation” into the attack,” the coalition said.

A US official with knowledge of the investigation told AFP on condition of anonymity that at least 30 rockets hit the base, including an ammunition depot, causing more explosions, while four more rockets were found in their tubes in a truck at the launch point.

The official described the attack as the biggest in the series of rocket strikes launched against US interests in the country since late October, killing one Iraqi soldier and leaving others wounded, as well as causing material damage in the vicinity of the US embassy in Baghdad’s Green Zone.

A US source has said that pro-Iran factions in Iraq are now considered a more significant threat to American soldiers than the IS.