Rockets Hit Near Iraq Base Hosting terrorists US Troops

Two rockets hit near an Iraqi airbase hosting US soldiers North of Baghdad on Sunday, days before a new “strategic dialogue” starts with the new US administration, a security source told The AFP.

According to Iraqi security officials, the purpose of the attack was to strike Balad air field, but the rockets fell short and hit a village Southeast of the target.

There was no claim of responsibility for the strike, which caused no casualties or damages.

Iraqi military bases housing American personnel faced multiple attacks over the past months.

In early march, Iraqi security forces announced a barrage of rockets have struck the Ein Al-Assad airbase hosting American forces in the Western province of Anbar. The official Iraqi News Agency, citing an unnamed security source, reported that several Katyusha rockets had hit the base, located West of the capital Baghdad.

The raid comes days after the US military conducted an air raid on positions belonging to the forces of the PMU, better known as Hashd al-Sha’abi, on the Iraqi-Syrian border, where they were engaged in fighting the remnants of the Takfiri Daesh (also known as ISIL or ISIS) terror group.

The Iraqi counter-terrorism force pledged retaliation, prompting the US military forces to go on high alert and adopt maximum security measures in anticipation of a response.

Iraqi anti-terror groups have recently reacted to the upcoming round of so-called strategic talks between Baghdad and Washington, whose key agenda item is reportedly the US combat deployment, emphasizing that armed resistance and operations against American occupation forces will continue until they are fully removed from the Arab country.

Iraqi lawmakers approved a bill in January 2020, which requires the Baghdad government to end the presence of all foreign military forces in the country.

The decision came days after the assassination of top Iranian anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in a terror drone strike authorized by Trump.

Gen. Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and his Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Units, were targeted along with their companions on January 3 last year.

It is estimated that there are currently 2,500 American troops in Iraq.