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Rocket attack hits US-occupied base in Iraq; several American personnel injured

Smoke billows from the US-occupied Ain al-Assad Airbase in western Iraq on August 5, 2024 following a rocket attack.

A rocket attack has targeted the United States-occupied Ain al-Assad Airbase in the western Iraqi province of al-Anbar, injuring several American personnel members.

"Rockets were launched at Ain al-Assad base," AFP reported, citing a military source as saying about the Monday attack.

Some of the projectiles "fell inside the base," the source added.

At least three explosions were heard in the base, likely due to rocket fire and drone strikes, Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television network reported.

CNN, meanwhile, cited an American official as confirming the casualties.

“Initial indications are that several US personnel were injured. Base personnel are conducting a post-attack damage assessment,” the official said.

No person or group has claimed responsibility for the incident so far.

The attack came less than a week after an American strike claimed the lives of four members of Iraq’s anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), an umbrella organization composed of the Arab country’s resistance groups.

It also came amid the resistance groups' outrage at the US's unwavering political, military, and intelligence support for the Israeli regime's ongoing war of genocide against the Gaza Strip that has so far killed more than 39,600 people.

The Iraqi 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 country in blatant violation of the international law based on false claims of it being in possession of weapons of mass destruction.

There are nearly 2,500 American troops in Iraq and some 900 in Syria as part of, what Washington claims to be, a fighting force against Daesh.

The US has maintained its presence, although, the Arab countries and their allies defeated the Takfiri terrorist group in late 2017.

In 2020, the Iraqi parliament voted in favor of expulsion of the foreign forces after a US drone strike assassinated Iran's top anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani and the PMU’s deputy commander Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis outside Baghdad International Airport.


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