One civilian contractor is dead, five civilian contractors are injured, and one U.S. service member sustained wounds after at least three rockets hit near a military base on Monday in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Col. Wayne Marotto, the spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, a mission to eliminate remaining members of the Islamic State, confirmed the death and multiple injuries in a tweet. Two of the missiles reportedly hit an airport in the area, and another struck an apartment complex. The attack was confirmed by the region’s government.
Initial reports that Indirect Fire landed on Coalition Forces in Erbil tonight. There was 1 civilian contractor killed, 5 civilian contractors injured and 1 US service member injured. More information to follow.
— OIR Spokesman Col. Wayne Marotto (@OIRSpox) February 15, 2021
Shortly after the confirmation of the attack, Politico reported that five people from the U.S. were wounded: four contractors and one service member. The contractor who was killed was reportedly not from the U.S.
Update: Five Americans were wounded in this attack, I’m told: Four contractors and one service member. The one KIA was a non-US contractor. https://t.co/uEmS8Mcfxj
— Lara Seligman (@laraseligman) February 15, 2021
On Monday night, Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq Masrour Barzani tweeted that he spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the “cowardly attack.” The two agreed to coordinate together in an investigation in the attack.
I spoke with @SecBlinken about the cowardly attack on Erbil. We agreed to coordinate closely in the investigation to identify the outlaws behind it -mb.
— Masrour Barzani پابەندین# (@masrour_barzani) February 15, 2021
Rudaw, a media outlet, posted a video that appeared to show one of the rocket’s detonations.
CCTV footage from the moment one of several rockets landed in Erbil pic.twitter.com/Zg3YW9ZCbE
— Rudaw English (@RudawEnglish) February 15, 2021
A similar area was struck on Sept. 30 from a truck in a nearby providence.
This is a developing story, and it will be updated.
