New rockets target Iraq base where US, UK troops killed

BAGHDAD — A fresh spate of rockets targeted an Iraqi base north of Baghdad on Saturday where foreign troops are deployed, Iraqi and US security sources told AFP, in a rare daytime attack.

It was the 23rd such attack since late October on installations across Iraq where American troops and diplomats are based, with the latest rounds growing deadlier.

None of the attacks have ever been claimed but the US has blamed hardline elements of the Hashed Al Shaabi, a network of armed groups incorporated into the Iraqi state.

Several rockets were fired at the Taji Airbase on Saturday, Iraqi and US military officials said.

"The initial toll is two wounded Iraqi Air Defence personnel who are in very critical condition," said Tahsin Al Khafaji, spokesman for Iraq's Joint Operations Command.

A military source said Iraqi security forces had found the launching pad for the rockets, but not the attackers themselves.

The US-led coalition's surveillance capabilities have been impaired by cloudy weather in recent days, which the US official said may have contributed to the attackers' readiness to launch the rockets during the day instead of under the cover of night.

Taji is overcrowded with members of the US-led coalition helping Iraq fight extremist remnants, after units were moved to the air base from other installations.

It came three days after a similar attack on the base killed two American military personnel and a British soldier — the deadliest such incident at an Iraqi base in years.

The US responded on Friday with air strikes on arms depots it said were used by Kataeb Hizbollah, an Iran-aligned faction within the Hashed.

At least five members of Iraq's security forces and one civilian were killed, none of them members of the Hashed, according to Iraq's military.

Iraq has long feared it would get caught in the spiralling tensions between Iran and the US, its two main allies.

They dramatically spiked in late 2019 when a US contractor was killed in a rocket attack on a separate base in northern Iraq, leading to retaliatory American strikes on Kataeb Hizbollah.

Days later, a US drone strike killed Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani and Hashed deputy chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

Iran launched ballistic missiles at US troops in Iraq while the Iraqi parliament voted to expel all foreign soldiers from its soil, a decision that has yet to be implemented.

Some 5,200 American troops are based in Iraq as part of the US-led coalition helping local troops root out the remnants of the Daesh terror group.

Top US military and civilian officials had long expressed frustration that Iraq's government was not doing enough to prevent rocket attacks targeting US troops and diplomats.