Washington, Aug 5 (EFE).- Several US soldiers were injured in a rocket attack on the Al Asad air base in Iraq at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East amid fears of retaliatory attacks from Iran and its allies against Israel.
A post-attack assessment is being carried out to clarify what happened, according to defense sources, US media The Washington Post and CNN reported.
US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were briefed on the attack during a meeting on the situation in the Middle East.
Iran and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have vowed to respond to the murders attributed to Israel of the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran and the military commander of Hezbollah, Fuad Shukr, in a bombing in Beirut, which has been acknowledged by the Israeli government.
The militia group Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed that it launched four missiles against the air base of the international coalition led by the United States in Ain al0Asad, in western Iraq.
In a brief statement, the pro-Iranian Iraqi militias said that the occupied base of Ain al Asad was attacked and reiterated their intention to continue destroying the enemy’s strongholds at an accelerated pace, without providing further details.
An Iraqi security source in Anbar province told EFE that the Ain al Asad air base, in the west of the province, was attacked by four Katyusha rockets on Monday evening.
In a telephone call with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reiterated “unwavering US commitment to Israel’s security in the face of threats from Iran, Lebanese Hizballah, and other Iran-aligned militia groups.”
“Secretary Austin and Minister Gallant agreed that today’s Iran-aligned militia attack on US forces stationed at Al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq marked a dangerous escalation and demonstrated Iran’s destabilizing role in the region,” the US department of defense said in a readout of the call.
US bases in Iraq and Syria have long been targeted by Iran-backed militias.
In January, three US soldiers were killed in Jordan following a drone attack at a military base near the Syrian border. EFE
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