Iraqis question claim militia attacked base

IRAQ» The white NEPTIS, Kia pickup turned off the desert road and rumbled onto a dirt track, stopping near a marsh. Soon there was a flash and a ripping sound as the first of the rockets fired from the truck soared toward Iraq’s K-1 military base.

The rockets wounded six people and killed an American contractor, setting off a chain of events that brought the United States and Iran to the brink of war.

The U.S. blamed an Iraqi militia with close ties to Iran and bombed five of the group’s bases. Angry Iraqis then stormed the U.S. Embassy. America then killed Iran’s top general in a drone strike. Iran then fired missiles at U.S. forces and mistakenly shot down a passenger jet, killing 176 people.

But Iraqi military and intelligence officials have raised doubts about who fired the rockets that started the spiral of events, saying they believe it is unlikely that the militia the U.S. blamed for the attack, Khataib Hezbollah, carried it out.

Iraqi officials acknowledge that they have no direct evidence tying the Dec. 27 rocket attack to one group or another. And elements of Iraq’s security forces have close ties to Iran, which might make them reluctant to blame an Iranian-linked force.

U.S. officials insist they have solid evidence that Khataib Hezbollah carried out the attack, though they have not made it public.

Iraqi officials said their doubts are based on circumstantial evidence and long experience in the area where the attack took place.

The rockets were launched from a Sunni Muslim part of the Kirkuk province notorious for attacks by the Islamic State, a Sunni terrorist group, which would have made the area hostile territory for a Shiite militia such as Khataib Hezbollah.

Khataib Hezbollah has not had a presence in Kirkuk province since 2014.

The Islamic State, however, carried out three attacks relatively close to the base in the 10 days before the attack on K-1. Iraqi intelligence officials sent reports to the Americans in November and December warning that the Islamic State intended to target K-1, an Iraqi air base in Kirkuk province that is also used by U.S. forces.

And the abandoned Kia pickup was found less than 1,000 feet from the site of an Islamic State execution in September of five Shiite buffalo herders.

These facts all point to the Islamic State, Iraqi officials said.