Mortar attack injures 4 children in northern Iraq

SALADIN/BAGHDAD

At least four children in northern Iraq were injured in a mortar attack on March 17, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

The attack was carried out by the ISIL according to Mustafa Hassan, the police chief in Tuz Khurmatu district.

Hassan told Anadolu Agency that four children were injured as the mortar shells hit a house in the Tuz Khurmatu, which is home to many Turkmens.

On March 16, six people were injured in a bomb attack in the same district.

Separately, at least three rockets struck Baghdad's fortified Green Zone near the American Embassy late on March 17, a day after an attack on a training base south of Baghdad where U.S.-led coalition troops and NATO trainers were present, the Associated Press reported.

The attack was the fourth in the span of a week.

At least three rockets struck the Green Zone, the seat of Iraq's government and home to several foreign embassies, two Iraqi security officials said. Myles Caggins, the spokesman for the coalition, said the rockets fell at least 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the embassy.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The previous evening, rockets hit the Basmaya base near the Iraqi capital, an Iraqi army statement said. The projectiles landed in an area that includes agricultural land and a factory, according to the statement. No more details were provided.

A Spanish contingent of the coalition and NATO trainers are present at the Basmaya site. There was no immediate confirmation of the attack from the coalition and no militant group claimed responsibility for the assault.

On March 11, a barrage of over two dozen rockets struck Camp Taji, north of Baghdad, killing three coalition servicemen, including two Americans. A British serviceman was also killed. It was the deadliest to target U.S. troops in Iraq since a late December rocket attack on an Iraqi base, which killed a U.S. contractor and set in motion a series of attacks that brought Iraq to the brink of war.

Wednesday's barrage was followed by another attack, on Saturday at the same site, which wounded five soldiers three coalition members and two Iraqi soldiers.

The first attack prompted American airstrikes Friday against what U.S. officials said were mainly weapons facilities belonging to Kataib Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia group believed to be responsible for the attack.

However, Iraq's military said those airstrikes killed five security force members and a civilian while wounding five fighters from the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella organization including an array of militias, including some Iran-backed groups.

Iran-backed Shiite militia groups vowed to exact revenge, signaling another cycle of tit-for-tat violence between Washington and Tehran that could play out in Iraq.