US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were briefed on the attack, the White House said.
Baghdad:
A rocket attack on a base in Iraq wounded several U.S. service members Monday, officials said, adding to already heightened tensions in the region over an expected Iranian counterattack on Israel.
The rocket attack is the latest in a series of attacks on the Ain al-Assad base in western Iraq, where US troops and personnel from the US-led coalition against the jihadist group Islamic State are stationed.
“There was a suspected missile attack today against U.S. and coalition forces” at the base, a U.S. defense spokesman said. “Initial indications are that multiple U.S. personnel were injured.”
“Base personnel are conducting a damage assessment following the attack” and updates will be provided as more information becomes available, the spokesperson said.
US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were briefed on the attack, the White House said.
“They discussed the steps we are taking to defend our troops and respond to an attack on our personnel in the manner and place of our choosing,” the statement said.
An Iraqi military source had said earlier that several rockets had been fired at the base. Some of the rockets landed on the base and another hit a nearby village but caused no damage.
A commander of a pro-Iranian armed group told AFP at least two rockets were aimed at the base, without saying who carried out the attack.
Another source in the group and a security source confirmed that an attack had taken place.
Such attacks occurred frequently early in the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza, but have largely stopped since then.
The latest missile attack comes amid growing fears of an attack by Iran and its allies on Israel in retaliation for the killing of top Hamas and Hezbollah figures in attacks last week blamed on or claimed by Israel.
– Series of attacks –
The killings, in which both Iran and Hezbollah have vowed revenge, are among the most serious series of hostile attacks that have fueled fears of regional chaos as a result of the war in Gaza.
The Iran-aligned “Axis of Resistance” against Israel, which also includes Iraqi groups and Yemen's Houthis, is already involved in the nearly 10-month war.
Monday's missile attack came after U.S. forces last week carried out a strike on fighters attempting to launch drones seen as a threat to U.S. and allied troops, a U.S. official said.
The attack, which Iraqi sources said killed four people, was the first by US forces in Iraq since February.
There have been two recent attacks on bases in Iraq housing US and allied troops: on July 16 and 25.
Before that, U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria had not been targeted since April. But attacks on them became much more frequent in the first few months of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, when they were targeted more than 175 times.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of pro-Iranian groups, claimed responsibility for most of the attacks and said it stood in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
In January, a drone strike attributed to those groups killed three U.S. soldiers at a base in Jordan. In retaliation, U.S. forces launched dozens of strikes against Tehran-backed fighters in Iraq and Syria.
Baghdad has tried to defuse tensions by holding talks with Washington over the future of the US-led coalition in Iraq, while Iranian-backed groups demand a withdrawal.
The US military has about 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Our staff and is published via a syndicated feed.)
