U.S. forces in Al Asad Airbase in Iraq targeted with rocket attack

ANBAR PROVINCE, Iraq — The joint Iraqi–American Al Asad Airbase was targeted with 10 rockets early on Wednesday.

The airbase was previously targeted in January 2020 by Iranian-backed militias in retaliation to the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

According to local sources, warning sirens were sounded as the rockets were incoming and no casualties were recorded as a result.

So far, no party has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it is likely the attack was conducted by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq in response to the recent U.S. airstrikes in Syria targeting Iranian-backed militias. Those airstrikes were a response to a separate rocket attack on U.S. forces stationed near Erbil International Airport in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq which left one contractor dead and several others wounded.