Explosion near US-led coalition base in Baghdad ahead of Iranian president’s visit

BAGHDAD — An explosion was heard at a U.S.-led coalition military base near Baghdad International Airport late Tuesday, just a day before Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was set to visit Iraq, security forces said.

“At 11:00 p.m., an explosion was heard inside Baghdad International Airport in the area occupied by international coalition advisers,” Maj. Gen. Tahseen Al-Khafaji, spokesman for the Joint Operations Command, said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The origin of the explosion remained unclear, and no group immediately claimed responsibility. However, flights at the airport continued as normal and were not interrupted, the statement said.

The U.S. embassy said Wednesday that a blast at Baghdad airport late the previous night was an attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound that caused no casualties.

“There was an attack at the Baghdad Diplomatic Services Compound, a U.S. diplomatic facility,” the embassy said in a statement. “Fortunately, there are no reported casualties, and we are assessing the damage and its cause.”

A senior military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that “two Katyusha rockets” were involved in the incident. “One fell on the wall of the Iraqi anti-terrorist forces compound. The second was inside the base hosting the international anti-jihadist coalition led by Washington,” the official said.

Pezeshkian arrived in Iraq on Wednesday for his first trip abroad since taking office in July.

A spokesperson for Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia group in Iraq, condemned what it called “an attack” aimed at “disrupting the Iranian president’s visit to Baghdad.”

In a post on X, the spokesperson, Jaafar Al-Husseini, called on Iraqi security services to determine who was responsible for the attack.

Over the past year, U.S.-led coalition forces have been targeted dozens of times by rocket fire and drones in both Iraq and Syria. Iran-backed armed groups in the region have claimed responsibility for some of these attacks, often citing U.S. support for Israel in the Gaza conflict as the reason.

U.S. forces have carried out retaliatory strikes on Iran-aligned groups in Iraq and Syria. The U.S. has around 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria as part of the international coalition against the Islamic State group.

Despite this, Iraqi security forces say they are capable of handling IS remnants on their own, as the group no longer poses a significant threat.

AFP