The spokesman explained that “what is believed to be a missile attack took place today against American and coalition forces at the Ain al-Asad base in Iraq. Initial indications are that a number of Americans were injured.”
Missiles were fired on Monday at the Ain al-Asad base in Iraq, which houses US forces, days after four pro-Iranian Iraqi fighters were killed in a US raid and amid fears of regional escalation, Iraqi sources said.
A military source stated that “rockets were fired at the Ain al-Assad base in Anbar province, adding that some of them “fell inside the base” while one rocket fell in a nearby village without causing any damage.
An official in an Iranian-backed faction told AFP that “the base was targeted with at least two missiles,” without specifying who carried out the attack.
These attacks were repeated shortly after the outbreak of the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas, but their pace declined significantly later.
Monday’s attack comes amid growing fears of a possible attack by Iran and its allies on Israel in response to the assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, as well as a senior Hezbollah leader in Beirut’s southern suburbs last week.
It also comes after US forces launched an airstrike Tuesday night on pro-Iranian Iraqi fighters who were trying to launch drones that posed a threat to US and coalition forces, according to a US official.
Iraqi sources reported that the raid left four dead, noting that it was the first carried out by the Americans since February.
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