American and British service members mark Veterans Day and Rememberance Day at Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center, Iraq, Nov. 11, 2022. The Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center was the target of a rocket attack in the early morning hours of Oct. 20, 2023. (Michael Romero/U.S. Army)
Two rocket attacks targeted a base with U.S. troops near Baghdad’s international airport early Friday morning, the latest of a series of strikes this week against the American military in the Middle East.
There were no casualties, a U.S. defense official said Friday. Air defenses shot down one rocket and the other struck an “empty storage facility,” the defense official said.
The rockets targeted U.S. and allied troops at the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center at about 2:50 a.m., the defense official said.
Roughly 2,500 troops are deployed to Iraq, where they officially act in an advisory role. The U.S. combat mission there ended in 2021.
The attack in Baghdad follows drone strikes in recent days at installations housing U.S. troops elsewhere in Iraq and Syria, as militant groups respond in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.
Also on Friday, Reuters reported that a rocket and drone attack caused multiple blasts at another Iraqi base with U.S. troops. U.S. Central Command has not confirmed the attack.
Iranian-backed militias are said to be planning attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East under the slogan of “Revenge for Gaza,” a report by the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday.
The destroyer USS Carney destroyed 15 drones and four land-to-air cruise missiles in the northern Red Sea on Thursday that were fired from Yemen and may have been targeting Israel, a U.S. defense official told Stars and Stripes on Friday.
Elsewhere, a drone attack on the U.S. garrison at al-Tanf in southeastern Syria on Thursday caused minor injuries, U.S. officials said. On Wednesday, U.S. forces shot down one drone and damaged another at al Asad Air Base in western Iraq.
An umbrella group of Iranian-backed militias known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack on al Asad as well as another on a base in northern Iraq, The Associated Press reported Thursday.
A U.S. defense contractor died of a heart problem Wednesday while scrambling for cover during an alert warning at al Asad, said Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s top spokesman.
The uptick in violence across the Middle East came following an explosion Tuesday at a Gaza hospital that killed scores of people, though the exact number remains unclear.
Israel released audio recordings, satellite imagery and other data in stating that an errant munition fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad caused the blast. The United States said after an intelligence review that the militant group likely is responsible, but many in the Middle East maintain that Israel is to blame.
Meanwhile, Israel has built up its forces on the Gaza border, as it prepares the next steps to fulfill a vow to destroy Hamas that came shortly after the Oct. 7 attacks.
Hamas raided settlements bordering the Gaza Strip and killed about 1,400 people, most of whom were civilians, according to Israeli estimates. They also took at least 200 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Israel in response has bombarded Gaza, cut off fuel and aid supplies, and told Gaza residents to flee to the south of the territory. Palestinian health officials say Israel’s actions have killed thousands and left hospitals incapable of helping many of the injured.
A deal is in the works to allow aid back into the Gaza Strip, The Associated Press reported Thursday.
The Egyptian and Palestinian Red Crescent Societies and the United Nations are expected to help oversee the operation, in part to ensure the supplies from the convoy through the Rafah Crossing on Egypt’s border with Gaza reach civilians, not combatants.
