The Ain al-Asad air base housing US troops in Iraq has come under a fresh attack by resistance forces opposing Washington’s support for the Israeli regime’s war on Gaza.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) on Monday launched a drone attack on the base located in the western province of Anbar.
The attack came just two days after Iraqi resistance groups fired multiple ballistic missiles and rockets at Ain al-Asad, reportedly causing traumatic brain injury for the personnel in the base.
The US Central Command confirmed the attack Saturday evening and said in a statement that “a number” of US personnel are being evaluated for traumatic brain injuries.
The Saturday attacks on US forces were the largest in scope and size since early October when resistance groups in Iraq began to target US positions in the country and in neighboring Syria in a bid to force the US to withdraw its support from Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
The IRI said on Monday that it had hit US military positions in Koniko, an area in Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr which is home to a key oilfield.
US forces in Koniko came under two rounds of attacks within an hour on midday Monday, said the IRI.
The IRI includes several paramilitary groups recognized by the Iraqi government as legitimate forces in the country’s fight against terrorism.
The groups have been pressing for an end to the presence of foreign forces in Iraq more than a decade after a US-led coalition invaded the Arab country in blatant violation of international law and under the pretext of finding WMDs However, no such weapons were ever discovered in Iraq.
Attacks by Iraqi resistance forces on US and Israeli interests in the region have expanded in recent weeks to cover targets near or inside the occupied territories.
An IRI statement on Sunday said resistance forces had launched a first drone attack on a target controlled by the Israeli regime in Syria’s Occupied Golan Heights.