A group of 10 ISIS fighters, at least two of them suicide bombers, attacked the main Anbar Province air base of Ayn al-Assad over the weekend, killing at least 18 Iraqi soldiers and wounding an unknown number of others.
Ayn al-Assad has several hundred US troops, labeled “trainers,” though the Iraqi Defense Ministry insisted that the ISIS fighters, who did briefly seize some buildings on the base, didn’t actually reach any US facilities.
According to Iraqi officials, eight of the 10 attackers were killed by Iraqi troops defending the base, while the other two blew themselves up. It is unclear how they got inside the base, let alone seized several important offices on such a major base.
Despite claims that ISIS is “on the run” in Anbar Province after the fall of Ramadi, the group has continued to launch major attacks in both Anbar and Baghdad.