5 Dead as Attack on US Troops in Iraq Misfires

Three Iraqi children and two women, all family members, were killed by rocket fire in Baghdad on Monday in a failed attack on United States forces in the Iraqi capital. Two more children were wounded in the blast, which was caused when two Katyusha rockets hit a civilian home instead of the Baghdad airport where the US troops were stationed. While no group claimed responsibility for the attack, it was believed that one of the local pro-Iranian Shia organizations was behind it, as the Iraqi military promised to apprehend the perpetrators who “seek to create chaos and terrorize” civilians. Last week, the Trump Administration threatened to pull out of Iraq altogether and close its embassy in Baghdad if the government did not halt the repeated attacks on American troops. In recent months, the capital’s Green Zone, where foreign diplomatic missions are stationed, has come under repeated shelling.