REVISES HEADLINE, DECK, ADDS DETAILS
By Ibrahim Saleh
BAGHDAD (AA) – A civilian contractor was killed and a US service member was wounded along with five other contractors in a rocket attack Monday in northern Iraq near Erbil International Airport, where a military base for US-led coalition forces is located, according to sources with the US-led anti-Daesh coalition.
An Iraqi police officer told Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity that aviation movement was suspended at the airport.
The Counter-Terrorism Service in Iraq's northern Kurdish region said two rockets landed near the airport while another crossed over it.
Witnesses told Anadolu Agency that a rocket fell in the Bakhtiari neighborhood near the airport.
It marked the second attack of its kind in the last six months. Unidentified assailants targeted the airport in September with six rockets, but there were no casualties.
Authorities in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region had accused the Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Forces, of carrying out last year’s attack.
*Writing by Ahmet Gencturk in Ankara
