Explosion Reported at US Military Facility Near Baghdad Airport 

A view of Baghdad international Airport. (Reuters)
A view of Baghdad international Airport. (Reuters)
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Explosion Reported at US Military Facility Near Baghdad Airport 

A view of Baghdad international Airport. (Reuters)
A view of Baghdad international Airport. (Reuters)

Iraqi security officials said an explosion targeted a site used by the US military next to Baghdad airport late Tuesday, one day before an expected visit by Iran's president.

The expected visit by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to Baghdad Wednesday would be his first official trip abroad since taking office.

Iraq’s security media cell said in a statement that an explosion was heard at 11 p.m. at the airport, in an area used by advisers to the US-led international coalition.

The statement said Iraqi security forces were unable to determine the "type or causes of the explosion, and no party has claimed responsibility for it." It added that the incident was under investigation and civilian air traffic continued as normal.

There was no immediate information on damage or casualties.

US officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

An Iraqi security official at the airport, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, said that officials who were at the airport preparing for Pezeshkian’s visit heard "the sound of two strong strikes," which apparently targeted a logistics support site for the coalition.

Over the past 11 months, Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have periodically targeted bases housing US forces in Iraq and have said that the strikes were in retaliation for Washington’s support of Israel in the war in Gaza.

One of those militias, Kataib Hezbollah, appeared to be trying to distance itself from Tuesday night’s strike.

Jaafar al-Husseini, the group’s spokesperson, said in a statement that the targeting of the airport was "carried out by suspicious hands, and its aim is to disrupt the Iranian president’s visit to Baghdad."



Pope Calls Gaza Airstrikes 'Cruelty'

A Palestinian mourns as he carries the shrouded body of a child, killed in an Israeli strike the previous night, during a funeral in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on December 21, 2024, as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian mourns as he carries the shrouded body of a child, killed in an Israeli strike the previous night, during a funeral in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on December 21, 2024, as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Pope Calls Gaza Airstrikes 'Cruelty'

A Palestinian mourns as he carries the shrouded body of a child, killed in an Israeli strike the previous night, during a funeral in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on December 21, 2024, as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian mourns as he carries the shrouded body of a child, killed in an Israeli strike the previous night, during a funeral in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on December 21, 2024, as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Pope Francis on Saturday again condemned Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, a day after an Israeli government minister publicly denounced the pontiff for suggesting the global community should study whether the military offensive there constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people.

Francis opened his annual Christmas address to the Catholic cardinals who lead the Vatican's various departments with what appeared to be a reference to Israeli airstrikes on Friday that killed at least 25 Palestinians in Gaza, Reuters reported.

"Yesterday, children were bombed," said the pope. "This is cruelty. This is not war. I wanted to say this because it touches the heart."

The pope, as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Roman Catholic Church, is usually careful about taking sides in conflicts, but he has recently been more outspoken about Israel's military campaign against Palestinian militant group Hamas.

In book excerpts published last month, the pontiff said some international experts said that "what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.”

Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli sharply criticized those comments in an unusual open letter published by Italian newspaper Il Foglio on Friday. Chikli said the pope's remarks amounted to a "trivialization" of the term genocide.

Francis also said on Saturday that the Catholic bishop of Jerusalem, known as a patriarch, had tried to enter the Gaza Strip on Friday to visit Catholics there, but was denied entry.

The patriarch's office told Reuters it was not able to comment on the pope's remarks about the patriarch being denied entry.