Baghdad rocket attack kills women and children

While no group has claimed responsibility, the incident bears the hallmarks of repeated recent rocket fire at US outposts by Iran-backed militias

Two women and three children, all from the same family, were killed in Baghdad in a rocket attack aimed at the Iraqi capital’s main airport on Sunday. EPA

Three Iraqi children and two women from the same family were killed on Monday when a rocket aimed at Baghdad airport – where US troops are stationed – hit their home, the army said.

It is the latest in a string of assaults on American interests in Iraq.

The attack occurred after Washington threatened to close its embassy and withdraw its troops from the country unless the missiles stop.

Attacks in the past year have caused relatively few casualties, and Monday’s incident was notable for the number of civilians killed.

It also wounded two children, the army said.

Twitter accounts supporting US arch enemy Iran regularly praise such attacks, but that was not the case on Monday, when no group immediately claimed responsibility.

Half a dozen previously unknown factions have claimed similar attacks in recent months under the banner of “Islamic resistance” against the “American occupier”.

But experts say they are a smokescreen, and include former members of pro-Iranian factions of the Popular Mobilisation Forces paramilitary alliance, a state-sponsored network close to Tehran.

Civilian deaths could put the group responsible in an uncomfortable position with a public exhausted by years of violence by various militias.

The Iraqi army on Monday accused “criminal gangs and groups of outlaws” of seeking to “create chaos and terrorise people”.

Between October and July, at least 39 rocket attacks were launched on US interests in Iraq. Almost the same number has taken place since.

In total, four soldiers – two British, one Iraqi and one American – have been killed in the attacks, as have a US and an Iraqi contractor. Several civilians have been wounded.

Iraqi intelligence sources have blamed the attacks on a small group of hardline Iran-backed paramilitary factions.

Senior American officers today see pro-Iran armed groups as a greater threat than ISIS, which once held a third of Iraq.

Washington has demanded that Baghdad take decisive action. But Iraq must play a delicate balancing act with US influence and that of neighbouring Iran, which arms, finances and supports various armed Shiite factions.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Iraqi President Barham Salih this month and threatened to close the American embassy in Baghdad, Iraqi and foreign officials have said.

That was seen as a new blow to Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi, who took office in May.

While he is seen as western-leaning, US officials have accused him of not doing enough against pro-Iran groups.

One Iraqi official told AFP: “The honeymoon is over.”

The American ultimatum was followed by threats of sanctions against senior political and military figures.

Populist Shiite cleric and politician Moqtada Al Sadr has called for a commission of inquiry into the rocket attacks, a proposal backed by Mr Al Kadhimi.

The PMF paramilitary alliance has dismissed several commanders accused of links to attacks on western interests, while denying responsibility for the acts of groups claiming PMF links and “carrying out illegal military acts against foreign interests”. But more hardline groups have stepped up the anti-US rhetoric.

One western official said: “If Washington follows through and withdraws its people, these groups will be able to brag that they kicked the Americans out of Iraq at little cost.”