An Iraqi base hosting US troops was targeted with at least 10 rockets on Wednesday, a US-led coalition spokesperson said. The attack came less …
An Iraqi base hosting US troops was targeted with at least 10 rockets on Wednesday, a US-led coalition spokesperson said. The attack came less than a week after President Joe Biden ordered airstrikes in Syria that the Pentagon suggested would end attacks on US forces in the region. Wednesday’s incident is still being investigated, but there are no reports of casualties among US troops and no one has claimed responsibility. An American contractor died of a heart attack at the base where the rockets hit while sheltering, the Pentagon said. The attack resembles similar incidents in which US forces in Iraq have been targeted by Iran-backed Shiite militias such as Kataib Hezbollah. The Biden administration has blamed these militias for recent attacks in Iraq, including a February 15 attack on a US-led coalition base in Irbil (in Kurdish-led northern Iraq) that killed a foreign contractor, wounded a US soldier, and wounded several US contractors. The Syria strikes, which targeted facilities used by Iranian-backed militias operating just across the Iraqi border, were a retaliatory action for the Irbil attack that the Pentagon said represented a «proportionate military response» that would help ease tensions. The Pentagon said that the strikes killed one fighter in an Iranian-backed militia, while wounding two others. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring group, said that at least 22 Iranian-backed militia members were killed in the strikes, which marked the first major military action of Biden’s presidency.
