Two Rockets Hit Iraqi Air Base Where US Occupation Troops Are Stationed

By Staff, Agencies

The Ain al-Assad Air Base where US occupation troops in the western Iraqi province of al-Anbar are stationed was hit by a rocket attack on Tuesday, the third such incident to target the American interests in the Arab country in as many days.

The Iraqi army said in a statement on Tuesday that two rockets had landed at the base, but the strike caused no casualties, without giving more details.

Iraqi al-Ahed TV channel said rocket sirens had gone off at the sprawling installation.

On Monday, at least six rockets hit the al-Balad Airbase positioning US forces and warplanes north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

A day earlier, another airbase where United States-led coalition’s forces are stationed at Baghdad International Airport came under rocket fire.

The triple back-to-back incidents have not been claimed by any party or individual yet, but the US usually blames such attacks on Iraqi resistance groups.

Enlisting scores of Washington-friendly countries, the coalition waded into Iraq in 2014 under the pretext of fighting Daesh [the Arabic acronym for terrorist ‘ISIS/ISIL’ group]. It retains its presence there, although on a smaller scale, despite the fact that Baghdad and its allies defeated the Takfiri terrorist group in late 2017.

Last January, the Iraqi parliament overwhelmingly passed a law ordering the withdrawal of all the US-led forces. The legislation was a response to an earlier US drone strike that martyred senior Iranian and Iraqi anti-terror commanders, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in Baghdad.

The operations targeting American targets have grown in number and frequency since the assassinations that largely angered the Iraqis.