Source: Rocket Targets Iraq Base Housing U.S. Troops
BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – A rocket on Sunday targeted an Iraqi air base housing American troops, a security source told AFP, the latest in a spate of attacks amid growing anti-U.S. sentiments in the country.
The Iraqi forces launched an investigation into a Katyusha rocket that landed inside the Ayn al-Asad Air Base in Anbar province.
It said that the rocket was fired from an area near the town of al-Baghdadi, some 190 km northwest of Baghdad.
In another incident, a farmer and his son were killed Sunday in a roadside bomb explosion in southern part of Iraqi capital Baghdad.
The attack occurred when an improvised explosive device blasted near the farmer’s house in a village, according to a statement by the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC).
The assault on the Ain Al-Asad base comes 10 days after the United States offered a reward of up to $3 million for information on such attacks against its citizens in Iraq.
Almost 30 rocket or bomb attacks have targeted U.S. interests in Iraq – including troops, the embassy or Iraqi supply convoys to foreign forces – since U.S. President Joe Biden took office in January.
On June 10, military bases housing American forces came under back-to-back rocket attacks in the north-central Iraqi province of Salahuddin and the vicinity of the Baghdad International Airport.
The first attack targeted the facilities housing the American troops in the Iraqi airbase of al-Balad in Salahuddin, Iraqi media outlets reported, citing the Iraqi Security Information Center.
Five projectiles were fired towards the targets during the incident, some of which landed near F-16 warplane hangars inside the base.
According to the center, “The rockets were fired towards the base from the villages lying around the Tigris River in the neighboring Diyala Province’s al-Khalis District.”
An apparent drone attack also targeted the U.S. troops’ base near the Baghdad airport with rockets, setting off sirens throughout the facility, Iraq’s al-Sumariya television said.
The channel said an unmanned aerial vehicle that was flying over the facility was destroyed during the incident.
Grassroot resentment has been on unprecedented rise across the Arab country.