Multiple rockets hit a US military base and a nearby airport in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, on Monday night. Initial reports say one civilian contractor was killed, five others were wounded, and one US soldier was also wounded. Two other civilians were wounded outside of the base, according to local security officials.
A US military spokesman said more details will follow, and the nationality of the contractor that was killed is not clear at this time. The attack also impacted the Chinese consulate in Erbil.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement on the incident. “We are outraged by today’s rocket attack in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region,” he said. Blinken did not attribute blame and added that he discussed the attack with Kurdistan Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.
A little-known group named Saraya Awliya al-Dam took credit for the attack, but it’s not yet known if they were responsible. Barzani said he ordered an investigation into the attack and has spoken with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi about the incident.
The incident is the first deadly attack on a US military base since March of last year when two US soldiers and one British soldier were killed in an attack on Camp Taji, a base to the north of Baghdad.
US officials and media outlets are quick to blame these types of attacks on Iran or Iran-backed militias, but there are plenty of forces inside Iraq that have their own reasons to fire on US troops.
Blinken is outraged, that’s good, warming up for the upcoming Iran, Afghanistan and China defeats. He plays his role perfectly, a Rodney Dangerfield who gets no respect. Nor should he.
Outrage! OUTRAGE, I tell you! Round up twice the usual number of suspects immediately. Oh, that brings it up to two? Well, we usually just say it’s Iran behind everything but now we have an alleged Iran-‘linked’ outfit that appears out of nowhere as well. How convenient, isn’t it?
There was a time in history when the fact that there is a US base in Iraq Kurdistan would have caused “outrage”. Tony was probably still breast feeding at that time so we can forgive him for being such an out of touch moron.
US bombs and rockets kill an unknown number of people in various countries every day and we never get a report of their deaths and injuries. These are men, women and children who have (or had) names and lives that matter. But they are never recognized. They are not newsworthy. I’m not criticizing this site, I know what makes the news, but isn’t it a damned shame. The damage and their identities are certainly known locally where the casualties happen, but we never get to see the destroyed cities and the bodies. Speaking off the top, the anti-war effort might benefit from such disclosures.
So true. Where the marketing boys can pump out lies and damn lies to beat the band, sources which attempt to verify civilian deaths are slow, laborious and expensive. As they say, a lie will circle the globe while the truth is putting on it’s shoes. Yet, it’s not hard to know that with the numbers of munitions the US militancy splooges all over, there are people underneath em.
Exactly. And Blinken somehow fails to be “outraged” at the simultaneous killing of 9 Syrians by Israeli bombs. That’s what official moralizing is worth.
We should have a “tomb of the unknown collateral damage.”
I have long held that all the horror should be shown. Every bit of it. The shattered bodies, the screams of the injured and dying, the wailing of the grieving families, wives, children, fathers, mothers, everyone whose lives are so devastated by the atrocity of war-in-general, and in particular the monstrous criminality of war-for-profit. The crimes of war are concealed not out of a consideration for the sensibilities of we who would then have to endure seeing them, but because exposure to the reality of that horror so far away would endanger the “revenue stream” — not to mention the impunity from accountability — of the criminals.
We have in the internet the opportunity finally, to show that horror free from govt ability to suppress it. We should make that happen.
The Jerusalem Post has an in-depth article on the attack here. The title is (of course): Was Iran behind attack on US forces in Iraq’s Erbil?. . .(It seems to be a sign of the times that we are regularly served “news headlines” entitled by distracting questions that serve a purpose.)
Ba-Ba-BA Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Barbara Ann
Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran
Barbara Ann
Take my hand
Barbara Ann Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran
You got me rockin’ and a-rollin’
Rockin’ and a reelin’
Barbara Ann
Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran
In blessed memory of a great American, an American warrior for democracy, Sen. John McCain, I rephrase this old Beach Boy song as he would have. John McCain’s words against evil-doers lives on.
If the US wants war, it might get war.