Rockets strike Iraqi base housing US troops & other coalition forces – Iraqi military

At least two rockets have landed at the Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq which hosts US and other international forces in the country, the Iraqi military said on Tuesday.

The attack resulted in no casualties, the military added, without revealing any further details of the incident.

None of the armed groups active in the country have so far taken responsibility for the strike on the base.

The Ain al-Asad base has been frequently targeted by rockets since the assassination of top Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike outside Baghdad airport in January 2020.

The rocket attacks have failed to inflict significant damage; however, in March an American civilian contractor at the base died after suffering what the Pentagon described as a “cardiac episode” while sheltering from incoming missiles.

Washington has blamed the attacks on Shia militias it insists are linked to Iran. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said earlier that the US will respond to those strikes “at a time and place of our own choosing.”

Some 2,500 American troops still remain in Iraq despite calls for their withdrawal by the country’s parliament. US President Joe Biden had promised a decade ago, while he was still Barack Obama’s vice president, that US troops would soon leave Iraq.

Washington and Baghdad agreed during talks last month that American combat forces in Iraq could be redeployed in the country in new roles as trainers and advisors for the local military. The Pentagon later clarified that the deal had nothing to do with the further withdrawal of US forces.

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