BAGHDAD: 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 jihadist 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.
Western security sources told AFP the rockets were Iranian-made Arash models, which are 122mm artillery rockets and heavier than those seen in similar attacks.
The Iranian Tasnim news agency reported last year that the country's Revolutionary Guards had developed the Arash because it was more precise than other models.
- Boiling tensions -
The contractor's death marked the third fatality in rocket strikes in recent weeks, after an attack targeting US-led troops in the Kurdish regional capital of Arbil left two people dead.
Days later, more rockets hit a US military contracting company working north of the capital and the US embassy in Baghdad, but only injuries were reported.
In response, the US carried out an air strike on February 26 against Kataeb Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Iraqi paramilitary force stationed along the Iraqi-Syrian border.
Washington said it struck on the Syrian side of the border but Kataeb claimed one of its fighters killed in the bombardment was protecting "Iraqi territory".
Iraqi and Western officials have blamed hardline pro-Iran factions for the spate of rocket attacks, including some said to have established front groups to defect blame.
Analysts have pointed to both domestic and international reasons for the rise in tensions.
Hardline Iraqi groups have an interest in ramping up pressure on Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi following his pledges to rein in rogue militias.
Kadhemi tweeted after Wednesday's attack that "any party that thinks it is above the state or can impose its agenda on Iraq and the future of its people is delusional".
Observers also say the rockets may be Tehran's way of pressuring Washington, which under President Joe Biden is offering to revive the Iran nuclear deal abandoned by his predecessor Donald Trump in 2018.
Iran is demanding the US lift sanctions immediately, while the US wants Iran to move first by returning to previous nuclear commitments.
Tensions between the two arch-rivals peaked in January 2020 after a US drone strike at Baghdad airport killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and top Iraqi paramilitary commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
In response, Iran launched ballistic missiles on Ain al-Assad and Arbil, wounding dozens.
Over the next 10 months, dozens of rockets and roadside bombs targeted Western security, military and diplomatic sites across Iraq -- some of them deadly.
Last year's attacks came to a near-complete halt in October following a truce with the hardliners, but they have resumed at a quickening pace over the past three weeks.
- Iraq 'waiting for us' -
Despite the attack, and the Covid-19 pandemic, Francis said he would go ahead with his visit, during which he is to meet top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.
"The Iraqi people are waiting for us, they were waiting for Saint John Paul II, who was forbidden to go," he said.
"One cannot disappoint a people for the second time. Let us pray that this journey will be successful."
While he is not scheduled to visit western Iraq, Francis will spend time in Baghdad and Arbil, both of which were hit by rocket attacks last month.
Iraq has also been gripped by a second wave of the coronavirus, reporting a record 5,173 new cases on Wednesday.
The toll surpasses the previous record of 5,055 in September, but Iraqi authorities have nearly doubled testing since then to more than 40,000 tests daily.
To control the crowds during the pope's visit, Iraq is set to extend weekend lockdowns to cover the entire papal visit from March 5-8.