Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was “furious” about a rocket attack on a U.S. military base in northern Iraq that killed a contractor and wounded six others – including a U.S. official on Monday.
Why it matters: Although it is unclear who carried out the attack on the usually peaceful Kurdish city of Erbil, it comes amid heightened tensions over the threat of militias backed by Iran against US targets in Iraq, according to the New York Times.
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- The militias were earlier blamed for earlier attacks in Iraq.
Details: During the attack, a barrage of rockets was fired at residential areas of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region in Iraq, with one landing near the Chinese consulate, reports the NYT.
- Blinken said the initial reports “indicate that one civilian contractor killed the attacks and injured several members of the Coalition, including one U.S. service member and several U.S. contractors.”
- He said he had reached out to the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masrour Barzani, “to discuss the incident and to pledge our support for all efforts to investigate and hold those responsible accountable.”
Editor’s note: this article has been updated with more details about the attack.