BAGHDAD – Multiple rockets hit an Iraqi base hosting American troops nearthe United States embassy early Sunday, the latest in a flurry of attacksagainst US assets in the country.
“The coalition confirms small rockets impacted the Iraqi base hosting(coalition) troops in the International Zone […] no casualties,” saidcoalition spokesman Myles Caggins.
The base, known as Union III, is the headquarters for the US-led coalition,deployed in Iraq since 2014 to help local troops fight the Islamic Stategroup.
Iraq’s military said three Katyusha rockets hit inside the Green Zone, thehigh-security enclave where the US mission and Union III are located, aswell as Iraqi government buildings, United Nations offices and otherembassies.
A fourth rocket hit a logistics base in a different neighbourhood operatedby Hashed al-Shaabi, a military network officially incorporated into theIraqi state, the Iraqi military said.
There was no immediate statement from the Hashed group.
Strikes on assets of both the US and Hashed at the same time are unusual,as Washington has blamed hardline elements within the military network forrepeated rocket attacks on American installations across Iraq.
Sunday’s attack was the 19th one since October to target either the embassyor the roughly 5,200 US troops stationed alongside local forces across Iraq.
No group has claimed responsibility for any of the incidents.
In late December, a rocket attack on the northern Iraqi base of K1 left oneUS contractor dead and unleashed a dramatic series of events.
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Washington responded with retaliatory strikes against Kataeb Hezbollah, ahardline Hashed faction in western Iraq.
Days later, an American drone strike link inBaghdad killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and his right-hand man,Hashed deputy chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
Hashed factions have vowed revenge for the pair’s death but said they wouldprioritise a political objective first: the withdrawal of US troops fromIraq.
But the network includes a broad range of groups and some have appearedmore willing to harass US troops militarily.
Sunday’s attack came just hours after one of Hashed’s Iran-backed factions,Harakat al-Nujaba, announced a “countdown” to ousting American forces fromthe country.
A top leader within Nujaba, Nasr al-Shammary, tweeted a photograph of whathe claimed was an American military vehicle, adding: “We are closer thanyou think.”
Sunday’s assault sent warning sirens blaring across the diplomaticcompound, a US military source and a Western diplomat based nearby told*AFP*. – APP/AFP
