A Katyusha rocket struck an Iraqi military base hosting US troops at Baghdad’s international airport. There was no report of any casualties.
The Iraqi military statement said a rocket launcher with a rocket was located in a residential district of western Baghdad. (Photo: AP)
An Iraqi military statement said a Katyusha rocket struck an Iraqi military base hosting US troops at Baghdad’s international airport on Wednesday.
The attack caused no damage or casualties, the third in as many days since Monday’s anniversary of the US airstrike that killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad two years ago.
The Iraqi military statement said a rocket launcher with a rocket was located in a residential district of western Baghdad. The area has been used in the past by Iran-backed militias to launch rockets at the airport.
On Monday, two armed drones were shot down on their way to a facility housing US advisers at Baghdad airport. Two explosive-laden drones were destroyed on Tuesday targeting an Iraqi military base housing US troops in western Anbar province.
A 2020 US drone strike on Baghdad’s airport killed General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq, known as the Popular Mobilization Forces. known as.
Pro-Iranian Shia factions in Iraq have vowed to avenge the killing and put an end to attacks against the US presence in Iraq upon a complete withdrawal of US troops from the country.
The US-led coalition last month formally ended its combat mission supporting Iraqi forces in the ongoing fight against the Islamic State group. Some 2,500 soldiers will remain as the coalition shifts to an advisory mission to continue supporting Iraqi forces.
The top US commander for the Middle East Marines, General Frank McKenzie, warned in an interview with the Associated Press last month that he expected increasing attacks on American and Iraqi personnel by Iranian-backed militias determined to drive out US forces .
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