Baghdad, March 3 (AFP/APP): A rocket attack on an Iraqi base hosting US-led coalition troops Wednesday claimed a contractor’s life, security sources said, just two days before Pope Francis is due to visit the country.
At least 10 rockets slammed into the sprawling Ain al-Assad military base in Iraq’s western desert after several weeks of escalating US-Iran tensions on Iraqi soil.
“One civilian contractor died of a heart attack during the attack,” a high-level security source told AFP, adding that he could not confirm the contractor’s nationality. Francis was quick to say he will go ahead with the first-ever papal visit to the war-scarred country so as not to “disappoint” the Iraqi people. “The day after tomorrow, God willing, I will go to Iraq for a three-day pilgrimage,” the 84-year-old pontiff said in his Wednesday address. “For a long time I have wanted to meet these people who have suffered so much.”
Ain al-Assad hosts Iraqi forces and US-led coalition troops helping fight the Islamic State group. It is also a base for drones the coalition uses to surveil militant sleeper cells. Coalition spokesman Colonel Wayne Marotto said 10 rockets hit the base at 7:20 am (0420 GMT) and Iraqi security forces said they had found the platform from which 10 “Grad-type rockets” were fired.
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