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Katyusha rocket hits military base at Baghdad airport

January 05, 2022
Parts of the wreckage of a drone are laid out on the ground near the Ain al-Asad airbase, in the western Anbar province of Iraq, Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022
Parts of the wreckage of a drone are laid out on the ground near the Ain al-Asad airbase, in the western Anbar province of Iraq, Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022

BAGHDAD — A rocket hit an Iraqi military base hosting US forces on Wednesday, but no damage or casualties were reported from the attack.

According to Iraq’s military sources, the Katyusha rocket struck the Camp Victory near Baghdad International Airport Wednesday morning.

It was the third attack since Monday's anniversary of a US airstrike that killed top Iranian general Qassim Soleimani in Baghdad two years ago.

Earlier in the day, four rockets hit the base, which hosts American forces.

The attacks followed a drone strike on Ain al-Asad Air Base in the Anbar province on Tuesday.

The Iraqi military statement said a rocket launcher with one rocket was located in a residential district in western Baghdad. The area has been used in the past by Iran-backed militias to fire rockets at the airport.

On Monday, two armed drones were shot down as they headed toward a facility housing US advisors at Baghdad airport. Two explosives-laden drones targeting an Iraqi military base housing US troops in western Anbar province were destroyed on Tuesday.

The 2020 US drone strike at Baghdad’s airport killed Gen. Qassim Soleimani, who was the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces.

Pro-Iran factions in Iraq have vowed revenge for the killing and have conditioned the end of attacks against the US presence in Iraq on the full exit of American troops from the country.

The US-led coalition formally ended its combat mission supporting Iraqi forces in the ongoing fight against the Islamic State group last month. Some 2,500 troops will remain as the coalition shifts to an advisory mission to continue supporting Iraqi forces.

The top US commander for the Middle East Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie warned in an interview with the Associated Press last month that he expects increasing attacks on US and Iraqi personnel by Iranian-backed militias determined to get American forces out. — Agencies


January 05, 2022
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