Rockets fired at US base in Syria from Iraq
It is the first attack on American troops in the region since early February.
For the first time in more than a month, Iraqi militants fired rockets at U.S. forces in the Middle East. Five rockets were launched from inside Iraq at a U.S. base inside northeastern Syria, Iraqi security forces announced Sunday night.
The attack took place at roughly 9:50 p.m. local time, with the rockets fired from the town of Zummar, northwest from Mosul and relatively close to the Syrian border. In a statement Iraqi security forces said that “outlaw elements of having targeted a base of the international coalition with rockets in the heart of Syrian territory.”
No American personnel were injured in the attack, a defense official told Task & Purpose. The official said that a coalition fighter destroyed the launcher that fired at a base at Rumalyn, Syria following the attack.
Reuters meanwhile, citing Iraqi security sources, reports that Iraqi forces found the vehicle used to launch the rockets and burned it.
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The attack was launched toward the Kharab al-Jir base in Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, France 24 reports. The base, located in northeastern Syria near the Iraqi border, is used by American troops and members of the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition. It had previously been attacked in December. The rocket attack is the first time since early February that forces in Iraq targeted U.S. installations and personnel. Those attacks have wounded dozens of American troops and killed three service members in a base in Jordan.
It is not immediately clear what group fired at the Kharab al-Jir base. Khataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militant group that the U.S. considers a terrorist organization, said that Iraqi militant groups were resuming attacks on American bases and personnel, with Sunday’s attack being “the beginning.” The resumption of attacks came after what the group saw as little progress by the Iraqi government to get U.S. forces to withdraw from Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani was in Washington, D.C. this past week, meeting with President Joe Biden.
On Saturday an airstrike hit an Iraqi base used by the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of Iraqi militias, wounding three fighters. The PMF, supported by Iran, was made a legitimized part of the Iraqi security apparatus during the war against ISIS. Some groups that make up the PMF have taken part in attacks against American forces in the last six months, under the loose umbrella of the Islamic Resistance of Iraq, in protest of American support for Israel during its war in Gaza. Although there is an overlap of the PMF and IRI, they are not one and the same. United States forces have previously targeted members of Khataib Hezbollah, killing a commander in February.
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