Rocket barrage hits Iraq base with US troops, nearby village

The Monday night strike is the most recent incident in a series of attacks that Western sources blame on Iran-backed proxies.

By World Israel News Staff

An Iraqi airbase north of Baghdad was targeted in a rocket barrage that appeared to be directed at U.S. troops housed in the facility north of Baghdad.

A security official cited by AFP said the strike on the Al-Balad base did not result in casualties or property damage to the facility’s infrastructure.

The Monday night strike is the most recent incident in a series of attacks, with Western sources pointing to Iran-backed proxies as the most likely culprits.

Iran finances, trains, and arms terror groups throughout the region, including Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, and the Houthis in Yemen, in addition to militias in Iraq.

While some of the rockets targeted the Al-Balad base, five of them landed in a village nearby.

The security official cited in the AFP report said that all seven rockets in the barrage were launched from a village in the neighboring province of Diyala.

While no specific militias claimed responsibility for the strike, it was launched amid a series of similar attacks on targets where U.S. troops are located.

A March 3 strike on the Ain Al-Assad base claimed the life of an American sub-contractor.

Several days prior to that incident, the U.S. struck a weapons depot in Syria used by Iran-backed Iraqi fighters linked to the recent attacks.

President Joe Biden called that strike a “warning” to Iran, whose proxies launched dozens of bombings and rocket attacks on Western forces and sites in 2020.