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Rockets hit Iraqi base housing US troops for second time this week

Ziad Haris | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 6 years, 6 months AGO
by Ziad Haris
| March 14, 2020 3:06 PM

BAGHDAD — Rockets hit an Iraqi military base housing US-led troops outside the capital Baghdad on Saturday, the second such attack this week on the site, the Iraqi military said.

Thirty-three Katyusha rockets landed in Camp Taji, hitting Iraqi air defense units near a U.S.-led coalition mission, Iraq’s military Joint Operations Committee.

An unspecified number of the air defense members were injured in the “flagrant attack,” the command added in a statement.

Initially, a spokesman for the command said at least two Iraqi service members were critically injured.

Iraqi security forces later Saturday found seven launch pads used in the attack and dismantled 24 other rockets before their launch, the Iraqi army said, according to the state news agency INA.

The US-led coalition confirmed the attack, saying at least 25 rockets hit the base. It said that three of its members and two Iraqi soldiers were wounded.

“Assessment and investigation ongoing,” a coalition spokesman tweeted.

So far, there has been no claim of responsibility.

On Wednesday, 18 Katyusha rockets struck the Taji base, killing two Americans and one British national.

The U.S. retaliated on Thursday by mounting airstrikes against facilities of Iraq’s Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah.

The strikes killed three Iraqi army soldiers, two policemen and a civilian worker, according to the Iraqi military.

No group took responsibility for the Wednesday attack, but Kataib Hezbollah praised it.

The Iraqi army urged the U.S. and other partners to an anti-Islamic State alliance not to respond to Saturday’s attack without the Iraqi government’s approval, warning against further escalation.

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ARTICLES BY ZIAD HARIS

March 14, 2020 3:06 p.m.

Rockets hit Iraqi base housing US troops for second time this week

BAGHDAD — Rockets hit an Iraqi military base housing US-led troops outside the capital Baghdad on Saturday, the second such attack this week on the site, the Iraqi military said.