At least five US personnel were injured in an attack against a military base in Iraq on Monday, US officials told Reuters, as the Middle East braced for a possible new wave of attacks by Iran and its allies following last week’s killing of senior members of terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
Two Katyusha rockets were fired at al Asad airbase in western Iraq, two Iraqi security sources said. One Iraqi security source said the rockets fell inside the base.
The US officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said one of the wounded Americans was seriously injured. The casualty count was based on initial reports which could still change, they said.
In a call on Monday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant agreed that the attack marked “a dangerous escalation”.
“Secretary Austin and Minister Gallant agreed that today’s Iran-aligned militia attack on U.S. forces stationed at Al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq marked a dangerous escalation and demonstrated Iran’s destabilizing role in the region,” according to the Pentagon readout of the call. Last week the US carried out a strike in Iraq against individuals US officials said were militants getting ready to launch drones and posed a threat to US and coalition forces.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were updated on the Al-Asad strike during a meeting in the Situation Room on Monday with the White House’s national security team.
According to a White House statement, “They discussed the steps we are taking to defend our forces and respond to any attack against our personnel in a manner and place of our choosing.”
Iraq hosts 2,500 US troops and has Iran-backed militias linked to its security forces. An additional 900 are stationed in Syria and 4,000 American service members throughout Jordan.
Iranian-backed proxies have attacked U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria over 150 times since President Joe Biden took office, resulting in at least six killed and over 135 wounded. The Pentagon says there have been over 180 attacks by Iranian-backed militias on U.S. troops in Iraq, Jordan, and Israel since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Three Soldiers were killed in a January attack on Tower 22 in Jordan, which supports the Al Tanf U.S. outpost in eastern Syria.
The Pentagon on Friday announced a series of measures it was taking to boost the U.S. military posture in the Middle East region to defend Israel against expected retaliatory strikes by Iran and its proxies.
