US ‘Outraged’ by Deadly Attack in Iraq

A civilian contractor was killed and an American service member was injured Monday in a rocket attack launched against United States forces in northern Iraq. The barrage of rockets, which hit a military base belonging to the US-led coalition at Erbil International Airport, also injured five civilian contractors. A small Shiite militia associated with Iran claimed responsibility for the attack, the largest and deadliest assault on American forces in Iraq in recent months. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said late Monday that Washington was “outraged” by the incident, pledging his support to the local Kurdish regional government in control of the area. Increased attacks on American targets by Iran-aligned Iraqi groups over the past year has caused the US to threaten to pull out its military and diplomatic presence from Iraq entirely, a move the US-backed government in Baghdad says would lead to the country’s disintegration and even more bloodshed.