US troops in Iraq and Syria came under two separate rocket and drone attacks in less than 24 hours, Reuters reported Monday, citing US and Iraqi officials.
The officials said the attacks were the first since a nearly three-month pause started in February. The Iraqi government and Iran had pressured Iraqi Shia militias to stop targeting US bases after three US Army Reserve soldiers were killed at Tower 22 in Jordan.
A drone attack targeted the Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq, and five rockets were fired at a base in Rumalyn, a remote area of northeast Syria. No casualties were reported in either attack.
A Pentagon official later told Stars and Stripes that a fighter jet from the US-led coalition in Iraq and Syria launched an airstrike against a rocket launcher but did not specify where.
The attacks came after an explosion hit a base south of Baghdad that killed one member of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an umbrella group of Iraqi militias that’s part of Iraq’s security forces. The cause of the blast is unknown and is being investigated.
Reuters initially reported that after the rocket attacks, a Telegram channel affiliated with Kataib Hezbollah, one of Iraq’s most powerful Shia militias, announced that attacks on US forces resumed because there was no progress toward a US withdrawal. However, Kataib Hezbollah denied issuing the statement, calling it “fabricated news.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani visited Washington last week but left with no clear timeline for a US withdrawal, and both the US and Iraq left open to the possibility of a continued US presence in Iraq even if the international anti-ISIS coalition ends its mission.
Earlier this year, al-Sudani was calling for an end to the US presence as the US was bombing PMF fighters in response to attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria. Starting in October 2023, US bases were targeted hundreds of times until the end of January due to US support for the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.
We the people should get used to these events. The US is becoming very unpopular around thec world by peace loving peoples. 750 foreign bases where none should be make for convenient easyb targets. With the new Hypersonic missiles our force of 13 Aircraft Carriers as a means of projecting American power are useless. The only thing the US posesses are Nukes and tanks,they can’t swim.
You mean the new Russian hypersonic missiles that are really not hypersonic and have been shot down a few times in Ukraine? Those ones?
“13 Aircraft Carriers?” Although I’m not superstitious, but even seeing that number next to “Aircraft Carriers” makes me nervous. Can we quickly make them 14? …I know. …It’s not logical. But, you can’t be too careful. AIR?
US free market; Borrow and spend to fight propaganda ghosts.
Friendly amendment: “US free market; Borrow and spend to fight propaganda ghosts” until they make all of us real ghosts.
Not a new thought but still appropriate.
“US Bases in Iraq and Syria Come Under Rocket and Drone Attack” from Israel?
They will never withdraw until israel is defeated and forced to move elsewhere since Iraq was to be part of greater israel. The israel north plan in Ukraine is now over. Where will they terrorize next?
This is smoke behind which real events are happening.
For example, Turkey has just deployed its S-400 systems to this area. That is not to stop terrorist rockets or drones, which is what they claimed. It is placed to intercept Israeli planes, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles on their way to Iran.
If Israel clears its path by attacking a NATO country, on its own territory, then Article 5 would require NATO to fight Israel. It won’t. Thus, NATO itself is teetering in the balance.
Likewise, these American outposts are meant as forward positions for such an attack on Iran.
This is not about just some Americans sitting in the desert ducking rockets, it is far more fundamental. It is a hegemon’s plans for aggression, and the survival of NATO.
Perhaps the US should not be in Syria and Iraq!