6 rockets hit Iraqi military airbase housing US advisers

Baghdad : Six Katyusha rockets hit on Wednesday a military airbase, housing some US experts and agencies, in Iraq’s western province of Anbar, the US military said.

The attack took place in the evening, when the rockets landed in Ayn al-Asad Airbase without knowing the casualties, an Iraqi army source told Xinhua news agency on the condition of anonymity.

The rockets were fired from a village located some 15 km east of the airbase, the source said, adding that no group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

Earlier in the day, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi called the attacks on Iraqi military bases “absurd,” stressing the end of the combat mission of the US-led coalition forces in Iraq after their withdrawal from the country.

“Unfortunately, there are some absurd actions within the first days of the new year, as several attacks targeted Iraqi bases, and this will certainly disturb the country’s security and stability,” said a statement by al-Kadhimi’s media office.

“We reiterate that the combat mission of the international coalition forces in Iraq has ended, and the Iraqi forces have received all the military bases,” it said, adding that there are currently a number of foreign military advisers working alongside the security forces.

The latest attack came as part of a series of drone and rocket attacks during the past three days that targeted Iraqi army bases, housing US advisers and agencies, in Ayn al-Asad Airbase and an army base known as Camp Victory near Baghdad International Airport.

The attacks came on the second anniversary of a deadly attack by a US drone on a convoy near Baghdad International Airport that killed Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, former deputy chief of Iraq’s paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces.

On December 29, 2021, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi confirmed the end of the US-led coalition forces’ combat mission in Iraq after the withdrawal of the forces from his country.