It’s a time for delivering messages in the Middle East, where messages rarely come without their near constant attendant: violence. On Monday night a volley of rockets struck a base hosting US troops in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. International media reported that one rocket landed in the base and another on residential areas nearby; one civilian contractor was reportedly killed, and six others were wounded, including a US service member. At least five Iraqi civilians were also injured, with one in a critical condition.
The militia group Saraya Awliyah al-Dam has claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack. The group remains, superficially at least, a mystery. It proclaims no overt allegiance and generally sticks to talking about kicking the US out of the Middle East and taking revenge for the 2020 US drone strikes against Iran’s most famous soldier, the Quds Force commander, Qasem Soleimani and Ab Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Iraqi commander of the Popular Mobilisation Committee (a conglomeration of mostly Shia militia groups).
The truth is that it’s an Iranian front.
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