Special to WorldTribune.com

BAGHDAD — After months of efforts, Islamic State of Iraq and Levant has begun attacks on Baghdad International Airport.

Officials said a car bomb exploded in a parking lot outside Baghdad International Airport and five people were injured. They said the explosion marked the first attack on the perimeter of the airport, which contains U.S. military aircraft, including that which brought Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“The bomb was detonated at the first line of security at the airport,” an official said. “The security regime remained intact.”

Officials said ISIL has sought to attack the airport for months. The facility contains U.S. military transports that brought American troops to advise and mentor the Iraq Army over the last three months.

So far, no group claimed responsibility for the attack. Officials said ISIL was trying to infiltrate the airport by recruiting passengers as well as Iraqi staffers.

The bombing took place during the visit by Dempsey, who was not in Baghdad at the time. The general, who addressed American soldiers at the airport, has predicted a U.S.-led campaign against ISIL that would last years. The United States plans to increase its military presence in Iraq to 3,100 by 2015.

“We’ve got to, at some level, militarily defeat it,” Dempsey said. “That is to take away its ability to maneuver, take away its ability to plan, take away its ability to resupply itself.”

  ISIL car bomb reaches ‘first line of security’ at Baghdad Airport, WorldTribune.com