Rockets hit Baghdad airport compound, disused civilian plane damaged – police

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -Several rockets landed in the Baghdad International Airport compound and near an adjacent U.S. air base on Friday, damaging at least one disused civilian aeroplane, Iraqi police sources said.

The police sources did not report any other damage or any injuries. The damaged aircraft was an out-of-use Iraqi Airways plane, they said.

Iraq’s state news agency reported, citing the country’s aviation authority, that there was no disruption to travel.

The U.S. air base, known as Camp Victory, is located around the perimeter of Baghdad’s civilian airport.

Rocket attacks have regularly struck the complex in recent years and are blamed by U.S. and some Iraqi officials on Iran-aligned Shi’ite militia groups who oppose the U.S. military presence in the region.

On Jan. 5, Katyusha rockets hit Iraqi military bases hosting U.S. forces near Baghdad’s international airport and west of the Iraqi capital.

A series of attacks this month, some of which the United States blames on Iran-aligned militia groups, have targeted bases or installations hosting U.S. military and diplomatic personnel but have caused no U.S. casualties.

The Iran-aligned militia have in previous years carried out dozens of similar attacks, mostly causing little harm. But the attacks have become more sophisticated in the past year, including with the use of fixed-wing and multi-rotor drones.

(Reporting by Baghdad newsroom, John Davison in Erbil, Iraq and Lilian Wagdy in Cairo, editing by Mark Heinrich)