© Reuters. Smoke is seen in Baghdad, Anbar Province, Iraq, on July 7, 2021, after rocket attacks. Iraqi media security cell / brochure via REUTERS
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By Ahmed Rasheed and Suleiman Al-Khalidi
BAGHDAD / AMMAN (Reuters) – Iraqi and Syrian U.S. diplomats and troops have fired three rockets and drones in the past 24 hours, U.S. and Iraqi officials said on Wednesday, including at least 14 rockets targeting a U.S. Air Force base. , injuring two members of the American service.
While responsibility for the attacks was not immediately claimed — part of a wave aimed at U.S. troops or areas deployed in Iraq and Syria — analysts believed they were part of a campaign by Iran-backed militias.
Iraqi militia groups backing Iran have vowed to take revenge last month for U.S. attacks on the Iraqi-Syrian border.
Two people were lightly wounded as a result of a rocket fired at the Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq, U.S. Army Colonel Colonel spokesman Wayne Marotto said. The rockets landed at the base and its perimeter. He first said three people were injured.
U.S. officials, on condition of anonymity, said the two injured workers are members of the U.S. service. One took the blow and the other had minor cuts, one of the officials added.
Two rockets were fired at the U.S. embassy inside the Baghdad Green Zone early Thursday, Iraqi security sources told Reuters.
The anti-embassy rocket system has deflected one of the rockets, said one source – a security official in the Green Zone office. Security officials said the second rocket crashed near the perimeter of the area.
Sources said the sirens shouted from the embassy inside the area, which houses government buildings and foreign missions.
In Syria, U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said no damage was done to the drone attacks on the Al Omar oil field in the eastern area bordering Iraq, where U.S. forces entered under a rocket but were wounded on June 28.
The Pentagon said a drone was shot down in eastern Syria and that no members of the U.S. service were injured and no damage was reported.
Iraqi army officials have said the pace of recent attacks on U.S. bases housed with rocket and explosive-laden drones is unprecedented.
Iraqi military sources said they used a rocket launcher fixed to the back of a truck in Wednesday’s attack and found it in nearby agricultural lands that caught fire.
On Tuesday, a drone struck Erbil Airport in northern Iraq, targeting a U.S. base in the airport’s territory, Kurdish security sources said.
Three rockets also landed in Ain Al-Assad on Monday without causing any casualties.
CLIMBING
The United States has been conducting indirect talks with Iran, with the two nations once again focused on fulfilling the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which was suspended by then-President Donald Trump. No date has been set for the next round of talks, which was suspended on June 20.
Hamdi Malik, an associate member of the Washington Institute and a specialist in Shiite militias in Iraq, said the attacks have intensified in Iraqi-backed militias in Iraq.
The attempt to strike in eastern Syria was the first example of operations being carried out jointly in the two countries.
“It seems to me that they have a green light from Iran, especially that the nuclear negotiations are not going well. But at the same time, they don’t want to go beyond a certain point – they are weaker in the US air. Strikes than before – and want to complicate it “.
The United States told the UN Security Council last week that it was targeting Syrian and Iraqi-backed militias in Iran with airstrikes to carry out or protect them from further attacks on U.S. workers or facilities.
Iran has denied attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria and condemned U.S. airstrikes on Iranian-backed groups.