(Baghdad) Seven Americans were wounded Monday in a rocket attack on a military base in Iraq, a U.S. official said Tuesday, days after four pro-Iranian Iraqi fighters were killed in a U.S. strike.
“Five US military personnel and two US contractors were injured in the attack, in which two rockets hit the (Ain) Al-Assad air base,” the US defense official said on condition of anonymity.
Five of the injured are being treated at the base, and two have been evacuated, he said, their lives not being in danger.
The Pentagon blamed the attack on “Iranian-aligned militias.” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant agreed in a phone call that it was a “dangerous escalation,” he said in a statement.
US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris “discussed measures […] to defend our forces and respond to any attack on our personnel, in the manner and location of our choosing,” the White House announced.
The Iraqi government said Tuesday that authorities had seized a truck containing eight rockets and were pursuing those responsible for the attack on the base in Anbar province.
He rejected “all thoughtless actions against Iraqi bases, diplomatic missions and sites of international coalition advisers” and “anything that could increase tension in the region,” according to a statement from his services.
Such attacks were common in the early months of the Gaza war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas, sparked by the Palestinian movement’s unprecedented assault on Israeli soil on October 7. More than 175 were recorded at the time, but they have since declined significantly.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq movement, a nebula of fighters from pro-Iran armed groups, claimed responsibility for most of them, saying they were acting in solidarity with the Gazans.
The new attack comes amid growing fears of a regional military escalation, following the assassinations of the leader of Palestinian Hamas and the military chief of Lebanese Hezbollah, the first blamed on Israel, which claimed responsibility for the second.
Iran and Hezbollah have vowed to retaliate for the killings. The “axis of resistance” against Israel, led by Tehran, includes Hamas, Iraqi armed groups and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Last Tuesday, a US strike targeted pro-Iranian Iraqi fighters “who were trying to launch attack drones” threatening “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 attacks also hit bases housing American soldiers or their allies in Iraq, on July 16 and 25, the first since April.
In January, a drone strike attributed to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq killed three American soldiers in Jordan. In retaliation, the United States launched dozens of strikes against pro-Iranian fighters in Iraq and Syria.
In recent months, Baghdad has been in talks with Washington over the future of the international anti-jihadist coalition in Iraq, which pro-Iran groups are demanding be removed.
Some 2,500 US troops are stationed in Iraq and 900 in Syria.