Iraqis’ Patience Running Out With Americans

Rockets Hit Ain al-Asad, Another U.S. Airbase

Date: 04 May 2021 - 21:40

News ID: ۸۹۸۹۵

BAGHDAD (Dispatches) -- A rocket attack hit the Ain al-Asad Airbase hosting U.S. troops in the western Iraqi province of Al-Anbar Tuesday, the third such incident to target the American interests in the Arab country in as many days.
The Iraqi army said in a statement that two rockets had landed at the base, but caused no casualties. Iraq’s Al-Ahd television channel said rocket sirens had gone off at the sprawling installation.
No earlier than on Monday, at least six rockets hit the Al-Balad Airbase that houses U.S. forces and warplanes north of the Iraqi capital.
A day earlier, an airbase similarly housing United States-led forces at Baghdad airport came under rocket fire.
The triple back-to-back incidents have not been claimed by any party or individual yet, but the U.S. usually blames such attacks on Iraqi resistance groups.
Enlisting scores of Washington-friendly countries, the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2014 under the pretext of fighting Daesh. It retains its presence there, despite the fact that Baghdad and its allies defeated the takfiri terrorist group in late 2017.
Last January, the Iraqi parliament overwhelmingly passed a law ordering the withdrawal of all the U.S.-led forces. The legislation was a response to an earlier U.S. drone strike that martyred senior Iranian and Iraqi anti-terror commanders, General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in Baghdad.
The attacks on American targets have grown in number and frequency since the assassinations that largely angered the Iraqis.