Rockets Hit Oil District in Southern Iraq
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Rockets landed near a district that houses foreign workers in Iraq’s oil industry early on Monday, but caused no damage or casualties, oil and police sources said.
Police said three Katyusha rockets were launched around 3 a.m. local time and hit the Burjesia district and operations headquarters west of Iraq’s main southern city, Basra, Reuters reported.
A launcher and 11 unfired rockets were found nearby and dismantled by security forces, according to the statement.
Two officials with state-run Basra Oil Co., which oversees oil operation in the south, said the attack had not affected production and export operations.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Police said they deployed additional forces to search the area.
The attack came amid warnings of false-flag US operations aimed at creating further unrest in the country and following calls by Iraqi officials on the US to withdraw its forces from the Arab country.
The US military has used such attacks as a pretext to pressure the Iraqi government to disband the country's popular anti-terror groups, which are now integrated into Iraq's regular armed forces, and staged airstrikes on their positions along with Israel.
Iraqi lawmakers unanimously approved a bill on January 5, demanding the withdrawal of all foreign military forces led by the United States from the country following the assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), and their companions in a US airstrike authorized by President Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport two days earlier.