A rocket
hit a site in southern Iraq used by foreign oil companies on Wednesday,
including U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil, wounding three people and threatening
to further escalate U.S.-Iran tensions in the region.
Three previous attacks on or near military bases
housing U.S. forces near Baghdad and Mosul caused no casualties or major
damage. None of those incidents were claimed.
An Iraqi security source said it appeared that
Iran-backed groups were behind the Basra incident.
“According to our sources, the team (that launched
the rocket) is made up of more than one group and were well trained in missile
launching,” the security source said.
He said they had received a tip-off several days
ago that the U.S. consulate in Basra might be targeted but were taken by
surprise when the rocket hit the oil site.
Hostility between the United States and Iran has
been rising since President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from a 2015
nuclear deal with Iran and other world powers in May last year.
Trump has since reimposed and extended U.S.
sanctions on Iran, forcing states to boycott Iranian oil or face sanctions of
their own. Tehran has threatened to abandon the nuclear pact unless other
signatories act to rein in the United States.
The U.S. face-off with Iran has reached a new pitch
following attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf in May and June that Washington
blames on Tehran. Iran denies any involvement.
While the long-time foes say they do not want war,
the United States has reinforced its military presence in the region and
security analysts say that violence could nonetheless escalate.
Some Western officials have said the recent attacks
appear designed to show Iran could sow chaos if it wanted to.
Iraqi officials fear that their country, where
powerful Iran-backed Shi’ite Muslim militias operate in close proximity to some
5,200 U.S. troops, will become an arena for any violent escalation.
The United States has pressed Iraq’s government to
rein in Iran-backed paramilitary groups, a tall order for a cabinet that
suffers from its own political divisions.
Iraq’s military said three people were wounded in
Wednesday’s strike by a short-range Katyusha missile. It struck the Burjesia
site, west of Basra, which is near the Zubair oilfield operated Italy’s Eni
SpA.
Police said the rocket landed 100 meters from the
part of the site used as a residence and operations center by Exxon. Some 21
Exxon staff were evacuated by plane to Dubai, a security source said.
Exxon had evacuated its staff from Basra after a
partial U.S. Baghdad embassy evacuation in May and Exxon’s staff had just begun
to return.
Burjesia is also used as a residential and
operations headquarters by Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Eni., according to Iraqi
oil officials.
The oil officials said operations including exports
from southern Iraq were not affected by the incident.
A separate Iraqi oil official who oversees foreign
operations in the south said the other foreign oil firms had no plans to
evacuate and would operate as normal.
A spokesman for Shell said its employees had “not
been subject to the attack ... and we continue normal operations in Iraq.”
Wednesday’s rocket strike fits into a pattern of
attacks since May, when four tankers in the Gulf and two Saudi oil pumping
stations were attacked.
They have been accompanied by a spate of incidents
inside Shi’ite-dominated Iraq, which is allied both to the United States and
fellow Shi’ite Muslim Iran.
The attacks in Iraq have caused less damage but
have all taken place near U.S. military, diplomatic or civilian installations,
raising suspicions they were part of a concerted campaign.
A rocket landed near the U.S. embassy in Baghdad
last month causing no damage or casualties. The United States had already
evacuated hundreds of diplomatic staff from the embassy, citing unspecified
threats from Iran against U.S. interests in Iraq.
Iran backs a number of Iraqi Shi’ite militias which
have grown more powerful after helping defeat Islamic State.
Iraqi officials say that threats from Iran cited by
Washington when it sent additional forces to the Middle East last month
included the positioning by Iran-backed militias of rockets near U.S. forces.
Rockets hit on or near three separate military
bases housing U.S. forces near Baghdad and in the northern city of Mosul in
three separate attacks since Friday.
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