A rocket hit a site in southern Iraq used by foreign oil companies on Wednesday,...
BASRA, Iraq - 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.
An Iraqi security source said it appeared that Iran-backed groups in southern Iraq were behind the Basra incident. U.S.-Iranian hostility has risen since President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and other world powers in May last year. Iraqi officials fear their country, where powerful Iran-backed Shi’ite Muslim militias operate in close proximity to some 5,200 U.S. troops, could become an arena for escalation.
Zubair mayor Maher said the rocket was fired from farmland around three to four kilometers from the site. A second rocket landed to the northwest of Burjesia, near a site of oil services company Oilserv, but did not explode, he said.“These incidents have political objectives ... it seems some sides did not like the return of Exxon staff.”Exxon had evacuated its staff from Basra after a partial U.S. Baghdad embassy evacuation in May and staff had just begun to return.
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