Iran-backed militants launched ballistic missiles at a base housing US troops in Iraq (Representational)
Washington:
Iran-backed militants launched ballistic missiles at a base internet hosting US forces in western Iraq, inflicting one Iraqi and potential American casualties, the US Central Command mentioned Saturday.
“A number of ballistic missiles and rockets had been launched by Iranian-backed militants in western Iraq focusing on al-Assad Airbase,” CENTCOM mentioned in a social media put up, which positioned the time of the assault at 6:30 pm Baghdad time (1530GMT) Saturday night.
A lot of the projectiles had been intercepted by the bottom’s air protection techniques however “others impacted on the bottom,” the assertion mentioned.
“Plenty of US personnel are present process analysis for traumatic mind accidents. At the least one Iraqi service member was wounded,” it added.
Iranian-backed Militants Assault Al-Assad Airbase, Iraq
At roughly 6:30 p.m. (Baghdad time) time Jan. 20, a number of ballistic missiles and rockets had been launched by Iranian-backed militants in Western Iraq focusing on al-Assad Airbase. A lot of the missiles had been intercepted by… pic.twitter.com/rYaNrRdRtu
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) January 20, 2024
Since mid-October, there have been dozens of assaults on US and coalition forces in Iraq and Syria, deployed there to struggle jihadists of the Islamic State group.
Most have been claimed by “Islamic Resistance in Iraq,” a free alliance of Iran-linked armed teams that oppose US assist for Israel within the Gaza battle.
The group mentioned in a press launch Saturday that it had carried out the newest assault.
Using ballistic missiles marks an escalation within the assaults on US forces in Iraq and Syria, who had beforehand been focused with lower-tech rockets and drones.
Saturday’s air base assault comes amid hovering tensions within the Center East following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas struggle on October 7.
5 members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had been additionally killed in a strike Saturday in Damascus that Tehran blamed on Israel, threatening reprisals.
Final Monday night, Iran itself launched a lethal strike in northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan area, saying it had focused a web site utilized by “spies of the Zionist regime (Mossad).”
Washington has on a number of events launched strikes of its personal, which it has mentioned had been to impede additional assaults or to stop imminent assaults.
In accordance with the Pentagon, dozens of US personnel have been frivolously wounded in earlier assaults since late October.
There are roughly 2,500 American troops in Iraq and a few 900 in Syria.
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