Rocket Attacks on Erbil Airport

[BigNoLove]

Iraqi resistance group, Saraya Oliya al-Dam took responsibility for the attack stating that at 9:15 on February 15, they fired several rockets toward the Airport and claimed to have inflicted heavy losses to US forces in the area.

Sources have only confirmed that at least five civilians were wounded due to the rocket attack so far. Also several rockets or the remnant of the rockets fell on several areas of Erbil city.

Three rockets hit the Waziran and Bakhtiyari neighborhoods, one of which hit the wall of the Chinese consulate.

[Berserk]

Some additional photo's

One from the direct aftermath while the smoke still has to clear, and the other two from collateral damage

[bigbear8]

“How the rockets entered to the region remains unclear, but it is possible that personnel within the Kurdistan Region’s security and Peshmerga forces collaborated with the perpetrators,” said the source.

Has to be this! KRG is (or was) very secure from what I remember when I visited a few years ago.

Also, I wonder what part of the airport was struck. The rockets fired were said to have a range of ~3.5 miles and were launched from a fruit and vegetable market about 3 miles from the city center. There are no fruit & vegetable markets within 3 miles of the airport that I remember seeing. The airport itself is segmented into two parts with the area where planes arrive/depart separated from the check-in areas by a long road.