Iran denies involvement in Iraq attacks, more attacks hours later

Iran is protesting a bit too much it seems in saying it wasn’t behind the attacks.

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN
The car used to attack US forces near Erbil, Iraq, Tuesday, February 16, 2020. (photo credit: COURTESY REGIONAL GOVERNMENT)
The car used to attack US forces near Erbil, Iraq, Tuesday, February 16, 2020.
(photo credit: COURTESY REGIONAL GOVERNMENT)
Iran denied its involvement in a series of recent attacks against Iraq late Monday night. The attacks targeted US bases.
Pro-Iranian militias are accused of attacking Erbil on February 15 and then Balad Air Base and Al-Asad Base, where US forces are located. The attack on Al-Asad took place on March 3. Iran also attacked the same base in January 2020 with ballistic missiles after the US killed IRGC Quds Force head Qasem Soleimani.
Now, it appears Balad Air base has been attacked. The base is north of Baghdad. Reports says seven rockets were fired. It was not clear if there were casualties. The base has been a target before, particularly in 2019. The US withdrew from most bases in Iraq in 2020 after tensions with Iran grew. Hours before the attack on Balad, Iran said it didn’t carry out the other attacks.
In a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the rotating president of the UN Security Council, Iran's Ambassador to the UN Majid Takht-Ravanchi denied his country's support of so-called ‘non-governmental militia groups’ in Iraq.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran has not been directly or indirectly involved in any armed attack against any US individual or body in Iraq," the Islamic Republic claimed. "Therefore, we deny any claim about our implicit or explicit involvement in attacks against American forces in Iraq. Such allegations are totally baseless, invalid, and false," the Iranian envoy added.
According to reports on March 15, seven rockets targeted an Iraqi air base housing US troops north of Baghdad on Monday, a security source said. “The evening attack on Al-Balad did not cause any casualties or damage inside the base, the security official said, according to Arab News. “The other five rockets crashed into a nearby village, he added, noting that all seven were fired from a separate village in the neighboring province of Diyala, east of the base.”
It is unclear if the rockets were the usual Iranian-supplied 107mm that are used by pro-Iranian groups in Iraq to attack the US. A logistics convoy that supplies US forces was targeted on March 13 in Iraq. Another was targeted on March 11. This appears to be a systematic Iranian-backed campaign against the US in Iraq. Like the attacks on Saudi Arabia from Yemen, Iran is trying to set the region alight. 


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