ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Fifteen Katyusha rockets landed within the perimeter of Taji military base north of Baghdad on Wednesday evening, the US-led coalition has confirmed.
A US official confirmed to Rudaw English that two Americans and one Briton have been killed. At least 12 personnel were injured, according to several reports.
A coalition official told AFP that foreign coalition members sustained wounds ranging from “light to critical”, without specifying the nationalities of the wounded.
An earlier statement from the Iraqi Security Media Cell claimed there had been no casualties.
The UK Ministry of Defence announced the death of a service member from the Royal Army Medical Corps in a Thursday statement, adding that investigation is now underway into the incident.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and UK's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab have said that those behind the attack "must be held accountable," according to AFP.
Security forces found a truck containing a missile platform and three unfired rockets in the southern part of Rashidiya on the opposite bank of the Tigris River.
The attack has not been claimed by any group.
Pro-Iran militia bases on the Iraq-Syria border have been hit by a series of airstrikes, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said late Wednesday. It is not known who launched the strikes or whether they are connected to the rocket attack.
Iraqi bases hosting US troops have seen several rocket attacks in the recent months, most of them targeting the Baghdad Green Zone – home to several Iraqi government ministries, the federal parliament, and foreign diplomatic missions including the sprawling US embassy compound.
It is also home to Forward Operating Base (FOB) Union III, also known as Al-Tawheed Al-Thalith, the main headquarters of the global coalition to defeat the Islamic State group (ISIS). The facility was hit in a rocket attack last month.
Following months of heightened tensions between the US and Iraq’s influential neighbour Iran, rocket attacks on US infrastructure and personnel in the Green Zone and elsewhere in Iraq have become increasingly frequent.
US officials accuse Iran-backed Iraqi militias of launching the attacks.
There are roughly 5,000 US troops stationed in Iraq alongside several NATO forces advising and assisting Iraqi and Kurdish forces in the fight against ISIS remnants.
The presence of US troops in Iraq has always been contentious for Shiite political parties and Iran-backed Shiite paramilitias.
Following the January 3 US drone strike on Baghdad airport, which killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi militia chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Shiite blocs in the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution demanding the expulsion of US forces from Iraq.
Iran responded to the assassination by firing a barrage of ballistic missiles at Iraqi bases hosting US forces on January 8. No Americans were killed in the retaliatory strikes, but more than a hundred US personnel reportedly suffered traumatic brain injury.
The US military is now moving air and missile defense systems into Iraq following negotiations with Baghdad, Marine Corps General and head of the US Central Command Kenneth McKenzie told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.
“Since May 2019, Iranian proxies and Shiite militia groups in Iraq have increased attacks on US interests and conducted scores of unmanned aerial system reconnaissance flights near US and Iraqi security force bases,” said Gen. McKenzie in his opening statement to the committee.
“We are in the process of bringing air defense systems, ballistic missile defense systems into Iraq – particularly to protect ourselves against another potential Iranian attack,” he added.
He did not provide further detail on the specifics of timeline of the missile defense introduction.
The US has Patriot missile systems, which are designed to shoot down missiles and aircraft, deployed to many of their military locations in the region. The Pentagon has seen its troops in Iraq as less vulnerable to attacks than other locations, officials say.
“The national defense strategy directs us to work with partners to deny the Iranian all pass to a nuclear weapon and to neutralize Iranian malign influence,” added General McKenzie, describing Iran as the “world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism”.
Last updated March 12, 2020, 9.45 am
