Rockets fired towards Baghdad airport amid rising tensions in Iraq

Iraqi Shia militia says its public relations director was killed in ‘cowardly US bombing’

Three Katyusha rockets have hit Baghdad International Airport, killing four people, according to the Iraqi military.

The missiles landed near the air cargo terminal, setting several cars on fire, early on Friday morning.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Meanwhile the Iraqi Shia Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) said in a post on Facebook that its director of public relations had been killed in what it described as “cowardly U.S. bombing.”

It comes a week after a US contractor was killed by a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base near Kirkuk.

The US claimed Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Iraqi Shia militia, was responsible and carried out airstrikes on the group’s bases in retaliation.

Then on Tuesday the militia’s supporters stormed the US embassy compound in Baghdad and set it on fire.

The latest rocket attacks took place shortly after defence secretary Mark Esper issued a warning to “Iran and its proxy militias”.

“We will not accept continued attacks against our personnel and forces in the region,” he said in a statement.

“Attacks against us will be met with responses in the time, manner, and place of our choosing. We urge the Iranian regime to end their malign activities.”

Kataib Hezbollah is regarded by the US as a terrorist group despite being part of Iraq’s state-sponsored PMF.

Additional reporting by agencies