1 of 1 Military vehicles near alAsad base in Iraq Photo: John Davison/Portal Military vehicles near alAsad base in Iraq Photo: John Davison/Portal
US forces were attacked on Tuesday (21) at an air base west of Baghdad and the US army responded with an airstrike, US officials said.
This was the first retaliation on Iraqi territory in response to recent militant attacks using drones and missiles.
The Ain alAsad air base was attacked by a shortrange ballistic missile, resulting in eight injuries and minor damage to infrastructure, two US officials said.
The US responded by attacking a vehicle belonging to an Iranianbacked militia and people involved in the attack. According to officials, there were several fatalities among the militants.
The attacks on US targets began on October 17 and were linked by Iraqi militias to US support for Israel in its bombing of Gaza after the Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out attacks on Israeli soil.
The attack on U.S. targets ended a yearlong ceasefire that Iraqi factions, some of which formed after the 2003 U.S. invasion against U.S. troops and others fighting the Islamic State in 2014, had reached with Washington.
The U.S. and international forces that make up the coalition fighting the remnants of the Islamic State have been attacked more than 60 times in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17, according to U.S. officials.