Rocket fire at Erbil airport in Iraqi Kurdistan

A rocket targeted Wednesday April 14 the airport of Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, where American soldiers are stationed, the latest episode of Iranian-American tensions in Iraq, caught between its two allies.

The explosion, which has so far not been claimed, was heard by AFP journalists in different neighborhoods of Erbil.

"

" Governor Erbil Omed Khoshnaw told the official Iraqi agency.

In the evening, a security cordon blocked all access to the airport, witnesses said on the spot.

But the governor assured that air links were not interrupted.

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On February 15, pro-Iran Iraqi factions were singled out for a similar attack: a rocket salute killed two and wounded several Iraqis and foreigners, including civilian contractors working for the international anti-jihadist coalition led by Washington. .

At the time, an obscure group, "

", claimed responsibility for the attack.

This group, a false nose of pro-Iran factions existing for years in Iraq and now integrated into the state, made its appearance again Wednesday evening on Telegram channels close to pro-Iran, welcoming the explosion in Erbil.

The Kurdistan Interior Ministry, autonomous since 1991 and which has five million inhabitants, said it was immediately opening an investigation.

Attacks in the South

The Kurdish counterterrorism only evokes a single rocket that fell on the airport, where there is an air base housing coalition troops.

But an Iraqi security source told AFP that other rockets had crashed in the vicinity, one of them targeting Turkish troops, stationed for a quarter of a century in a dozen bases across Kurdistan.

Earlier today, two bombs exploded as Iraqi logistics convoys carrying equipment for the international coalition passed through Zi Qar and Diwaniya provinces in southern Iraq, according to security sources.

In total, around twenty bomb or rocket attacks have targeted bases housing American soldiers or American diplomatic representations since Joe Biden came to power at the end of January.

And before these, dozens more had taken place in over a year and a half.