Five rockets were launched targeting a US military installation in Syria from Iraq
According to two Iraqi security officials and a US official, at least five rockets were fired on Sunday towards a US military facility in northeastern Syria from the town of Zummar in Iraq.
This is the first strike on US personnel since Iranian-backed militants in Iraq ceased attacking US forces at the beginning of February.
It happens one day after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani returned from a trip to the US, during which he had a meeting at the White House with President Joe Biden.
According to a post on a Kataib Hezbollah-affiliated Telegram group, armed groups in Iraq have decided to pick up their attacks again after a nearly three-month hiatus because they have not seen much progress in negotiations to end the US-led military coalition there.
Later, Sabreen News, a well-known Telegram group affiliated with Kataib Hezbollah, claimed that the Iran-backed group had not released an official statement.
Speaking on the phone, a US official claimed that although over five rockets were fired from Iraq at soldiers at a coalition base in Rumalyn, Syria, no US personnel were hurt.
Although the official called it a “failed rocket attack,” it was unclear at first whether the rockets had failed to reach the base or had been destroyed en route. Furthermore, it was unclear if the base itself was the target.
The official said that an aircraft from the coalition led by the United States in Syria and Iraq then struck the launcher.
Zummar, a town on the Syrian border, is home to a small truck that has a rocket launcher fixed on the back, according to two security sources and a senior army officer in Iraq.
The demolished vehicle was impounded for additional examination, according to an army official, and preliminary findings indicated that an air attack was the cause of its destruction.
“We are communicating with the coalition forces in Iraq to share information on this attack,” said the official.
The official organization in charge of distributing security information, the Iraqi Security Media Cell, said in a statement that Iraqi troops had begun “a wide-ranging search and inspection operation” with the goal of apprehending those who have committed crimes close to the Syrian border.
The attacks followed a massive explosion early on Saturday at a military base in Iraq that claimed the life of an Iraqi security force member who was allied with groups backed by Iran. The army claimed it was conducting an investigation and that no warplanes were in the sky at the time, but the force commander claimed it was an attack.
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