Iraqi Revenge Against Ain al-Asad

Grad Rockets Rain Down on U.S. Base in Iraq

Date: 03 March 2021 - 22:51

News ID: ۸۸۲۱۸

BAGHDAD (Dispatches) -- A barrage of rockets on Wednesday morning struck the Ain al-Asad air base hosting American forces in the western Iraqi province of Anbar.
The Security Media Cell, affiliated with the Iraqi prime minister’s office, announced in a statement that 10 Grad rockets had struck the base, located about 160 km west of the capital Baghdad.
The statement said security forces had found the launch pad for the projectiles, and that further details about the incident would be provided later.
An informed security source, speaking to Press TV, said later Wednesday eight missiles had hit the U.S. section and two others landed in the coalition section of the base, leaving two American contractors dead and six others injured.
The attack took place at 7:20 am (0420 GMT), coalition spokesman Colonel Wayne Marotto confirmed.
Iraqi and Western security sources said a contractor with the U.S.-led military coalition died of a heart attack during the rocket attack. His nationality has not been unveiled.
Sabereen News, a Telegram news channel associated with Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units, reported that C-RAM systems as well as Patriot Advanced Capability-2 (PAC-2) missile systems deployed at the base were not able to intercept the rockets.
According to the report, a number of U.S. military aircraft as well as Spanish choppers could be seen flying over the Hit district, where the air base is located, in the aftermath of the rocket attack.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet, which is the latest in a series of assaults that have targeted U.S. positions in Iraq over the past few months.
Witnesses said a thick column of smoke could be seen billowing from flames in the base.
The raid comes days after the U.S. military conducted an air raid on positions belonging to the forces of the PMU, better known as Hashd al-Sha’abi, on the Iraqi-Syrian border, where they were engaged in fighting the remnants of the Daesh terror group.
The Iraqi counter-terrorism force pledged retaliation, prompting the U.S. military forces to go on high alert and adopt maximum security measures in anticipation of a response.
The U.S. raid was said to be a response to recent attacks on its military base in Erbil and its mission in Baghdad’s Green Zone, which Washington blames on Iraq’s Kata’ib Hezbollah, a claim rejected by the Hashd al-Sha’abi faction.
In a joint statement released on Saturday, Iraqi resistance groups had pledged that the attack would prove very costly for Washington.
The groups said the bombing of PMU observation posts would destroy the understanding and rules of engagement that had already been reached among various sides.
"Such actions by the United States will not be the last and will be repeated, but they will definitely prove the most costly for the Americans,” the statement said.
The groups also asked the Iraqi government to clarify its stance on the attack and other acts of the occupying forces.

Friday’s U.S. airstrikes against Iraq’s popular anti-terror forces have sparked a flurry of outrage and drawn condemnation even from American politicians, with many of them saying such attacks would encourage terrorism in the region.
Numerous reports had emerged recently about unusual movements by U.S. troops near the border between Iraq and Syria.
U.S. troops are based across the border in Al-Tanf in Syria, where militants fighting the Syrian government are reportedly trained and armed and used for operations in Iraq and elsewhere.
Over the years, there have been numerous reports about the infiltration of Daesh elements from Syria into Iraq under the protection and logistical assistance of U.S. troops.
Hashd al-Sha’abi and its affiliates, which have been integrated into Iraq’s regular forces, are deployed on the Syrian border and helping the army stem the movement of terrorists between the two countries.
Last Thursday, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that U.S. military forces planned to transport a new batch of imprisoned Daesh terrorists from the northeastern Syrian province of Hasakah to Al-Tanf.
On Saturday, a roadside bomb struck a convoy of trucks belonging to the U.S.-led coalition forces as it was moving along Al-Diwaniyah highway in Iraq’s central province of Al-Qadisiyah. The blast damaged a vehicle and wounded an Iraqi guard.
Ain al-Assad air base was hit by a volley of Iranian missiles in January 2020 in response to the U.S. assassination of top Iranian anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.
General Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and his Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Units, were targeted along with their companions on January 3, 2020 in a drone strike authorized by former U.S. president Donald Trump near Baghdad airport.
According to the Pentagon, more than 100 American forces suffered "traumatic brain injuries” during the counterstrike on the base.
Iran has described the missile attack on Ain al-Assad air base as a "first slap” in its "harsh revenge.”