(Baghdad) Americans were injured Monday in a rocket attack on a military base in Iraq, days after a US strike killed four pro-Iranian Iraqi fighters, amid fears of a regional conflagration.
“There was an alleged rocket attack [lundi] against U.S. and coalition forces [antidjihadiste] on the air base [Aïn] Al-Assad, Iraq. Early indications are that there have been several injuries to U.S. personnel,” a U.S. Defense spokesman said.
Earlier in the day, Iraqi sources said rockets were fired on Monday at the same base, located in al-Anbar province.
Some projectiles “fell inside the base,” a military source said on condition of anonymity.
A commander of a pro-Iranian armed group had for his part affirmed to AFP, also under the cover of anonymity, that at least “two rockets” had targeted the base, without specifying who was behind the attack.
Another source from the group and a security source, also on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press, confirmed that an attack had taken place.
Such attacks were common at the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but have since declined significantly.
More than 175 times
The latest rocket attack, however, comes amid growing fears of an attack by Iran and its allies on Israel and a wider regional conflagration, following the recent assassinations of senior officials from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah, attributed to or claimed by Israel.
Iran and Hezbollah have vowed retaliation for the killings.
The “Axis of Resistance” against Israel, aligned with Iran, also includes Iraqi armed groups and the Houthi rebels of Yemen, who have already been drawn into the war that began almost ten months ago.
Last Tuesday, a US strike targeted pro-Iranian Iraqi fighters “who were trying to launch attack drones” that “posed a threat to US and coalition forces” fighting jihadists in the region, according to a US Defense official.
The strike, which Iraqi sources said left four dead, was the first by U.S. forces in Iraq since February.
Two recent attacks hit bases housing U.S. troops or their allies in Iraq, on July 16 and 25. Before that, U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria had not been targeted since April.
The attacks, however, had been much more frequent – more than 175 times – in the first months of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq movement, a group of fighters from pro-Iran armed groups, claimed responsibility for most of the attacks, saying they carried them out in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
In January, a drone strike attributed to the movement killed three American soldiers at a base in Jordan. In retaliation, the United States launched dozens of strikes against pro-Iran fighters in Iraq and Syria.
In recent months, Baghdad has tried to defuse the situation by engaging in talks with Washington on the future of the international coalition mission in Iraq, which pro-Iran groups are demanding be withdrawn.
Some 2,500 US troops are stationed in Iraq and 900 in Syria.