US defence official stated Tuesday that American forces were targeted at a base in western Iraq, the second such attack on the country’s troops after a more than two-month gap.
It followed another incident over the weekend in which rockets were launched from northern Iraq against a Syrian base housing the US-led coalition forces fighting the Islamic State terrorist group.
United States troops in the Middle East have been assaulted numerous times since mid-October, but the cycle of rocket and drone attacks, as well as intermittent retaliation strikes, came to an end in early February when the US conducted heavy air raids on Iran-linked locations.
“Yesterday there was an attack against Al-Asad Air Base that did not cause injuries or damage”, the official said.
The official went on to say, “This was the second attack against US forces since February 4”.
A wave of more than 165 strikes against US troops in Iraq and Syria began in October, just after the current round of war between Israel and Hamas, resulting in injuries but no deaths among US forces.
However, a drone attack in Jordan killed three US soldiers in late January, prompting Washington to launch strikes on dozens of Iranian-linked targets in Iraq and Syria. The air raids were followed by a respite in their attacks, which lasted until late this month.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of Iran-backed groups outraged by US support for Israel, claimed the majority of the attacks, but none of the strikes this month has been claimed.
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