US personnel suffered minor injuries and a member of Iraq’s security forces was seriously wounded in an attack on Iraq’s Ain al-Assad Airbase on Saturday, a US official said, citing initial assessments, which are subject to change.
At least a dozen missiles were fired at a military base used by US-led coalition forces in western Iraq, a US defense source and Iraqi police told AFP.
“Al-Asad airbase was targeted by 15 rockets” fired from Anbar province, which is home to the military base, an Iraqi police official from the region told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He said 13 of the projectiles were shot down by anti-air defenses but that “two fell on the airbase.”
Al-Asad Airbase is an Iraqi Armed Forces base located in al-Anbar Governorate of Western Iraq. It was originally known as Qadisiyah Airbase. It was the second largest U.S. military airbase in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom and it is still being used by American forces.
There are roughly 2,500 American troops in Iraq and some 900 in Syria.
A US defense official, who also requested anonymity, confirmed that “missiles impacted Al-Asad airbase,” adding that a joint damage assessment was under way with coalition and Iraqi forces.
The American official said that initial reports indicated one member of the Iraqi security forces had been seriously injured.
The attack on the air base comes amid soaring tensions in the Middle East following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.
On Saturday, five members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed in a strike in Damascus that Tehran blamed on Israel, threatening reprisals.
On Monday evening, Iran itself launched a deadly strike in Northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, saying it had targeted a site used by “spies of the Zionist regime (Mossad).”
Since mid-October, there have been dozens of attacks on US and coalition forces in Iraq and Syria, deployed there to fight extremists of the ISIS.
The majority of the attacks have been claimed by “Islamic Resistance in Iraq,” a loose alliance of Iran-linked armed groups that oppose U.S. support for Israel in the Gaza war.
Washington has on several occasions launched strikes of its own in retaliation.
In its own statement confirming the attack on the Airbase, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said: “At approximately 6:30 p.m. (Baghdad time) time Jan. 20, multiple ballistic missiles and rockets were launched by Iranian-backed militants in Western Iraq targeting al-Assad Airbase.
“Most of the missiles were intercepted by the base’s air defense systems while others impacted on the base. Damage assessments are ongoing. A number of U.S. personnel are undergoing evaluation for traumatic brain injuries. At least one Iraqi service member was wounded.”