5 persons killed in rocket attack near Baghdad airport

Baghdad: Three children and two women were killed on Monday when two rockets landed on their house near Baghdad International Airport, the Iraqi military said.

Two other children were wounded in the Katyusha rocket attack that struck and destroyed the family’s house in Albu-Amir area in the southwest of the Iraqi capital in the afternoon, the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said in a statement.

 

The rockets were fired by “criminal gangs and outlawed groups” from the nearby al-Jihad neighbourhood, the statement added.

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, also commander-in-chief of the



Iraqi forces, ordered the arrest of officers responsible for the security of the al-Jihad neighbourhood and an immediate investigation into the incident.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Baghdad airport and the military bases housing US troops across Iraq as well as the US embassy in the Green Zone have been frequently targeted by mortar and rocket attacks.

According to media reports, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo privately warned Iraq earlier that the United States would close its embassy in Baghdad if the Iraqi government doesn’t move to stop such attacks.