EXC: Major US bases hit in W Iraq, E Syria; Many Americans wounded at Iraqi base

The concurrent strikes took place on Wednesday against the Ain al-Assad airbase that hosts the US troops in the western Iraqi province of al-Anbar, and the military base run by the American troops at the al-Omar Oilfield in Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.

The attacks came more than a week after the American military conducted a deadly air raids against targets reportedly belonging to Iraqi anti-terror forces on the both sides of the Arab countries’ common border.

Casualty count

Iraq’s Sabereen News agency put the number of the wounded from the attack on the Iraq-based outpost at five, citing preliminary figures.

US-led coalition spokesman, Col. Wayne Marotto, however, alleged that the attack had only wounded two personnel members.

The Thar al-Muhandis Brigade claimed responsibility for the attack on Ain al-Assad. It said it struck the base with 30 Grad rockets, adding that the projectiles hit their targets accurately.

Sources said the strike had most likely been meant to destroy very important and expensive equipment and installations belonging to US troops there.

The Iraqi resistance group has identified its goal as seeking revenge for the US drone strike that martyred senior Iraqi anti-terror commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in Baghdad early last year. The strike also martyred ranking Iranian counter-terrorism commander, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and many others.

The Iraqi parliament passed a law soon afterwards, ruling all forms of US-led presence in the country as illegal.

Both the commanders played a key role in defeating the Takfiri terrorist group of Daesh, which the US has been using as an alleged excuse to prolong its presence in Iraq and Syria, which has also been invaded by the coalition’s forces.

‘US fires back aimlessly, targeting houses, mosque’

US forces opened “aimless” artillery fire in response to the attack on Ain al-Assad, causing damage on a number of civilian residences and a mosque in the city of Hit in al-Anbar, reports noted.

Iraq’s Alahad TV said the coalition had responded with multiple attacks that caused fire to a number of residences located in Hit’s al-Baghdadi area.

The coalition, however, alleged that the response had targeted the locations that had been struck with rockets.

In Syria, according to the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), mortar rounds were fired into the Dayr al-Zawr-based military compound for the third time in recent days.

Militants from the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of mainly Kurdish forces fighting against Damascus, reportedly claimed that they had thwarted the attack.

Iraqi resistance groups have vowed to keep up their struggle until complete expulsion of all the foreign troops. Damascus has also said it reserved the right to retaliate towards invading military forces.