[4] Tensions between the United States and Iran rose in January 2020, during the 2019–2021 Persian Gulf crisis, when the Iranian major general and commander of the Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, and the commander of the Iranian-backed Kata'ib Hezbollah militia, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, were targeted and killed near Baghdad International Airport in Iraq by an American drone strike.

[10] A few days later, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched the Operation Martyr Soleimani, attacking the American airbases in Iraq with ballistic missiles;[11] no U.S. service member was killed, but 110 were later diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries.

Rocket attacks had frequently targeted the American presence in Baghdad, including the U.S. Embassy, as well as convoys ferrying materials for the U.S.-led coalition.

[15] On 15 February 2021, at around 21:30 local time,[21] approximately fourteen 107mm rockets[4] were launched from an area south of Erbil near the border with Kirkuk Governorate,[3] and three of them struck the section of the airport hosting U.S. and coalition partner forces.

[23] The airport was shut down and flights were halted due to safety concerns,[17] while the Kurdish authorities cautioned Erbil's residents to stay away from targeted areas and to remain at home if possible.

[23] A little-known Shiite armed group called Saraya Awliya al-Dam (Arabic: سرايا أولياء الدم, romanized: sarāyā ‘āwliyā‘ ad-dam, "Guardians of Blood Brigade"), claimed responsibility for the attack,[26] but did not provide evidence of its role in the incident.

[17] The spokesperson for the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Mahmoud Mohammed, stated that a group of fighters with ties to the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) was responsible for the attacks.

[19] According to Caroline Rose, a senior analyst at the Washington-based Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, the attack conveyed a message of intimidation to both the Biden administration and the federal Iraqi government.

[20] According to Jonathan Spyer, the executive director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis, the attack was an Iranian message to the newly elected Biden administration.

[29] On 17 February, the American embassy in the Green Zone of Baghdad activated its own air defense system, and reconnaissance helicopters were flown over the area.

[30] The following day, NATO announced that it will expand its security training mission in Iraq after a request by the Iraqi government, increasing the size of its forces from 500 to around 4,000 personnel.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the airport drone attack, but Saraya Awliya al-Dam hailed the blast in pro-Iran channels on Telegram.