The place to start updates on the tanker saga near the Strait of Hormuz is a few hundred miles away in Iraq.  There, mortar attacks were launched Friday evening at Balad Air Base north of Baghdad (near Tikrit), where a mix of American troops and contractors is stationed.  The report is of three mortar rounds launched into the base from outside it.

The Green Zone in Baghdad, where the U.S. embassy complex is located, was also targeted with a rocket (see thread above).  Reportedly, the rocket landed on a building across the street from the embassy.

On Monday evening (17 June), there were reports of additional rocket attacks at Camp Taji northwest of Baghdad, where U.S. trainers work with Iraqi national army troops.

 

It isn’t clear at this point whether, or how quickly, harassment of this kind from inside Iraq will escalate.  But such attacks, presumably by Iran-backed militia forces in Iraq – using a signature weapon of Iran-backed paramilitary operatives throughout the Middle East – have been rare in spite of verbal threats from Iran over the past year.  The Iranian regime is apparently probing now to see how much harassment it can get away with.