Explainer: Why is Ain al-Assad US military base under Iraqi resistance attack again?

By Ivan Kesic

The Ain al-Assad airbase in the western Iraqi province of al-Anbar came under rocket attacks twice in less than 12 hours on Monday, resulting in several casualties, according to reports.

It came less than a week after a US strike claimed the lives of four members of Iraq’s anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) and amid growing calls for the ouster of US-led allied forces.

These calls have intensified amid the Israeli-American genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza.

US media confirmed a rocket attack against US and coalition forces stationed at the Ain al-Assad airbase late on Monday that resulted in several US casualties, describing it a "dangerous escalation."

American personnel were reportedly still assessing the scale of damage and casualties, and according to the latest information, at least ten US soldiers were injured, some of them critically.

Israeli media, citing American sources, reported that two American soldiers were killed in the attack, but this information was neither confirmed nor denied by the Pentagon.

The Iraqi military said in a statement that they found a vehicle carrying missiles, adding that two rockets were launched from the Haditha district, with eight more being prepared for launch.

Media reports said at least three explosions were heard in the base, likely due to rocket fire and drone strikes from the Iraqi resistance groups.

What preceded the strike?

Five days before, American aircraft attacked the positions of Iraq’s anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), an umbrella organization composed of the Arab country's resistance groups.

US officials called the attack "self-defense," but experts say it was linked to support for the Zionist entity, which has been reeling under strikes for months by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.

This US military attack on Iraqi forces coincided with the Israeli regime’s terrorist attacks in Beirut and Tehran, killing Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, respectively.

Iraqi resistance groups had announced retaliation for American aggression.

In a statement on Wednesday, PMU called for the "immediate" withdrawal of US forces from Iraq in the wake of the assassination of Haniyeh in Tehran and the US strike on Iraqi personnel south of Baghdad.

The anti-terror group said the US attack on its forces was a "hostile act", "demanding that we do what is necessary for our national duty to defend Iraq’s dignity and sovereignty."

Haniyeh’s assassination, they said, showed that "enemies are plotting to ignite the region and expand the war" on Gaza, adding that the "blood won’t go to waste.”

"The cowardly assassination will only make the honorable resistance fighters more determined to continue their jihad," the PMU said in the statement.

Leader of the Nujaba movement Akram al-Kaabi said Americans and Zionists had “opened the gates of hell” with Haniyeh’s assassination.

"The Americans and Zionists have opened the gates of Hell after Haniyeh’s assassination, the reckless strike on the southern Beirut suburbs, and the deceitful American strike against fighters in Iraq,” he wrote on his X page, formerly Twitter.

"These assassinations will make the resistance more determined.”

What was the target of the attack?

The targeted Ain al-Assad Airbase is a strategic military site established by US forces following their invasion of Iraq, located in the western al-Anbar Governorate.

Thousands of American troops are stationed in Iraq and Syria as part of, what Washington claims to be, "a fight against Daesh.” The Takfiri terrorist group was defeated way back in 2017, thanks to the spirited fight led by Iran’s top anti-terror commander Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

Soleimani was assassinated along with PMU’s deputy commander Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis by the US military in the Iraqi capital Baghdad in January 2020, on direct orders of the then-US president.

Analysts say the real purpose of US bases is military-espionage surveillance of regional states, disturbing communication lines between Iraq and Syria, and strategic support for the Israeli regime.

The US political, military, and intelligence patronage for the Tel Aviv regime, especially amid the genocidal war on Gaza that has killed nearly 40,000, has been repeatedly condemned by Baghdad.

Iraqi resistance groups have carried out a string of military operations, both against the US forces as well as the Zionist entity, in recent months, calling for an end to the bloodshed in Gaza.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has targeted the Ain al-Assad site on multiple occasions in recent months, causing incalculable material damage and military casualties.

When will the US base be closed?

Following the 2020 US attack, the Iraqi parliament voted in favor of the expulsion of US-led allied forces, to which the Trump administration responded with threats of confiscating Iraqi reserves in US banks.

The Iraqi groups have also 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 international law.

In February, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq suspended its operations against US forces in Iraq, in hopes that a special governmental committee and the US would negotiate a framework for the withdrawal.

However, the continued US attacks on Iraqi forces as well as its sponsorship of Israeli genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza have prompted the resistance to resume attacks on occupation bases.

Earlier this week, Hadi al-Amiri, head of the Fatah (Conquest) Alliance in Iraq’s parliament and leader of the Badr political party, said Iraq has set a timetable for the expulsion of the US occupation forces.

He added that Israelis and the Americans have "certainly" miscalculated and the "blood of martyrs" will serve as another source of motivation for resistance fighters in the battle against the Zionist entity. 

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