rocket attack
rocket attack

By Frank Miles | Fox News

At least three rockets were fired at Baghdad International Airport Friday killing at least seven people, according to multiple reports early Friday.

Local reporters had suggested that pro-Iran military leaders may have been targeted, but officials have not yet confirmed all of the dead and who may have been behind the attack. An official with an Iran-backed paramilitary group known as the Popular Mobilization Forces told The Associated Press one of the victims was its airport protocol officer, identifying him as Mohammed Reda.

Iraq’s Security Media Cell, which released information regarding Iraqi security, said the three Katyusha rockets landed near the cargo hall.

Iraqi security also said two cars were on fire.

Ehab Al Obaidy@Ehab8Alobaidy

Rockets Strike #Iraq’s #BaghdadAirport, #USMilitary Choppers Spotted in Airspace. Three rockets landed on the edge of #Baghdad International Airport , causing explosions but no deaths or injuries, according to local reporters.

The nighttime attack occurred amid tensions with the U.S. after an Iran-backed militia attacked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which was targeted Tuesday by angry mobs who were protesting recent U.S. airstrikes.

The two-day siege outside of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad came to an end Wednesday afternoon after dozens of pro-Iran militiamen and their supporters withdrew from the compound.

U.S. EMBASSY IN BAGHDAD FIRE DAMAGE SEEN IN NEW PHOTOS FOLLOWING MILITANTS’ ATTACK

The crisis started early Tuesday, when, in an orchestrated assault, hundreds of protesters stormed the embassy compound, one of the most heavily fortified U.S. diplomatic missions in the world.

President Trump, who on Tuesday night vowed that the situation “will not be a Benghazi” — a pointed reference to the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya on the Obama administration’s watch, ordered deployment of about 750 U.S. soldiers to the Middle East.

The embassy attack, one of the worst in recent memory, followed deadly U.S. airstrikes on Sunday that killed 25 fighters of the Iran-backed group, the Kataeb Hezbollah. The U.S. military said the airstrikes were retaliation for last week’s killing of an American contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base, which the U.S. blamed on the militia.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper reacted on Thursday to the U.S. Embassy attack in Iraq earlier this week, saying that it’s time for Iran to start “acting like a normal country.”

“We are there in Iraq working with our Iraqi partners to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS,” Esper said on “America’s Newsroom” on Thursday.

“Through the president’s direction, we were able to physically defeat the caliphate that remains physically defeated, if you will,” he added. “And now our aim is to deter further Iranian bad behavior that has been going on now for over 40 years. It’s time that Iran started acting like a normal country.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Frank Miles is a reporter and editor covering geopolitics, military, crime, technology and sports for FoxNews.com.

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