Washington.– Several U.S. military personnel were wounded in a suspected rocket attack on a military base in Iraq, U.S. defense officials said Monday, amid a surge in attacks on American forces by Iran-backed militias.
The attack comes at a time when tensions in the Middle East are rising following the assassinations last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and the top political leader of Hamas in Iran, in what are believed to have been Israeli strikes. Both groups are backed by Tehran.
U.S. defense officials said troops at the Al Asad air base were still assessing injuries and damage, and that civilians and soldiers were apparently wounded. Earlier Monday, Iraqi security officials confirmed the attack, but no group has claimed responsibility.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.
In recent weeks, Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have resumed attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria after a pause of several months, following an attack on a Jordanian base in late January that killed three American soldiers and sparked a series of retaliatory U.S. strikes.
Between October and January, an umbrella group calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq had regularly claimed responsibility for attacks it said were carried out in retaliation for Washington’s backing of Israel in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and aimed at driving U.S. forces out of the region.
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