Two rockets hit near Iraq airbase hosting US soldiers

Two rockets hit near an Iraqi airbase hosting US soldiers north of Baghdad on Sunday.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Two rockets hit near an Iraqi airbase hosting US soldiers north of Baghdad on Sunday, three days ahead of a new "strategic dialogue" with Washington, a security source told AFP.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the strike at Balad airbase, which caused no casualties or property damage, but the US routinely blames Iran-linked Iraqi factions for such attacks on its troops and diplomats.

Sunday s was the 14th attack against American interests -- including troops, the Baghdad embassy or Iraqi supply convoys to foreign forces -- since US President Joe Biden took office in January.

Two Americans and an Iraqi civilian have been killed in the attacks.

An Iraqi civilian working for a firm maintaining US fighter jets for the Iraq airforce was also wounded in one attack.

The operations are sometimes claimed by obscure groups experts say are smokescreens for Iranian-backed organisations long present in Iraq.

Qais al-Khazali, a senior pro-Iran figure in the state-sponsored Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force, recently declared that the "resistance" was carrying out attacks and would step them up "unless the US withdraws all its combat forces from across Iraq".

- Balancing interests -

The latest attack came as Washington prepares to launch a strategic dialogue with the government of Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi, who has regularly received threats from pro-Iran factions.

Kadhemi faces the delicate task of balancing the interests of neighbouring Iran and the US, arch-rivals who are both deeply involved in Iraqi politics.

Washington on Wednesday extended by several months a sanctions exemption allowing Iraq to import electricity from Iran during the ferociously hot summers when air-conditioning sends demand spiking.

The US, which led a coalition from 2014 to oust the Islamic State group from its self-declared "caliphate" in northern Iraq and Syria, still has some 2,500 troops in Iraq.

Since the defeat of their shared enemy, Washington and pro-Iranian factions have exchanged both threats and fire.

In February, the US carried out a raid against pro-Iranian Iraqi fighters in Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported 22 of them had died, while the Pentagon reported just one death.

Joe Biden s administration has stressed that the action was meant as a warning and to avoid further escalation of tensions between Tehran and Washington.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Washington wanted to "send a very strong signal that we re not going to tolerate attacks on our people and our Iraqi partners".

But both sides are wary after a previous escalation in January 2020, sparked by the US assassination of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, took the arch-enemies to the brink of war.