A U.S. defense official has told Newsweek that seven U.S. personnel were wounded in a recent rocket attack at an Iraqi base that follows the first U.S. strikes in the country in months amid soaring regional tensions.
“Yesterday (5 Aug) at approximately 2 p.m. ET, two rockets impacted Al Asad Airbase in Iraq,” the official, speaking on background, said. “Five U.S. Servicemembers and two U.S. contractors were injured in the attack.”
“Five injured personnel are receiving care at Al Asad Airbase and two have been evacuated for further care,” the official said. “All seven injured personnel are in stable condition. Post-strike assessments are still ongoing. We’ll continue to provide updates as they become available.”
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which came amid vows for retaliation from Iraqi militias over U.S. airstrikes conducted less than a week earlier. The Pentagon claimed the strikes were launched in self-defense amid indications of an imminent drone attack, but they drew outrage from officials and militias alike.
The Iraqi Armed Forces and its affiliated paramilitary Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which includes a number of Islamic Resistance in Iraq factions that have staged attacks against U.S. troops in previous months, alleged that the strikes constituted an illegal aggression and a violation of the terms in which the U.S. military maintains a presence in the country.
The strikes also prompted calls from the PMF and various militia factions, including the Nujaba Movement and Kataib Hezbollah, for the immediate expulsion of U.S. forces. Such calls were amplified by fury over the killing of Hamas Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital of Tehran around the same time the strikes were conducted.
Haniyeh’s death has been widely blamed on Israel, which has declined requests to confirm or deny its involvement in the assassination. The top Hamas official’s slaying came less than a day after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed the killing of the top military official of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, Fouad Shukr, in Beirut.
Iran and its allies across the informal coalition known as the Axis of Resistance, which includes Hezbollah, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and Yemen’s Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthi movement, have vowed to strike back at Israel over the recent events.
Newsweek has reached out to Iraqi government, the PMF and the Nujaba Movement for comment.
In the wake of the U.S. strikes that hit Babil province last week, a U.S. defense official told Newsweek that the U.S. had targeted “combatants attempting to launch one-way attack uncrewed aerial systems (OWAUAS).”
“Based on recent attacks in Iraq and Syria, U.S. Central Command assessed that the OWAUAS posed a threat to U.S. and Coalition Forces,” the U.S. defense official said at the time. “This action underscores the United States’ commitment to the safety and security of our personnel. We maintain the inherent right to self-defense and will not hesitate to take appropriate action.”
Kataib Hezbollah, however, argued that those targeted included a group of experts testing drone equipment to be used to monitor security for the upcoming Muslim pilgrimage to the holy city of Karbala for Arbaeen. Kataib Hezbollah issued warnings to both the U.S. and Kuwait, from which it claimed the U.S. strike was launched.
The U.S. strikes marked the first of their kind since February, when President Joe Biden ordered a series of strikes across Iraq and Syria after three U.S. soldiers were killed at the Jordan-Syria border amid a monthslong campaign of rocket and drone attacks claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq campaign, geared toward putting pressure on the U.S. over its support for Israel in Gaza and continued military presence in Iraq, was largely halted after those U.S. strikes. But militias have repeatedly threatened to resume the attacks if Washington and Baghdad did not come up with a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops amid ongoing discussions being held by the two governments.
Bracing for a looming attack on Israel in response to Haniyeh’s death, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant on Monday “to reiterate unwavering U.S. commitment to Israel’s security in the face of threats from Iran, Lebanese Hizballah, and other Iran-aligned militia groups,” according to a Pentagon readout.
During their talks Monday, the two defense chiefs also “agreed that today’s Iran-aligned militia attack on U.S. forces stationed at Al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq marked a dangerous escalation and demonstrated Iran’s destabilizing role in the region.”
In addition to being targeted throughout the campaign launched last October by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Ain Al-Asad Airbase was also the site of a large-scale Iranian missile attack in response to the U.S. killing of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force chief Major General Qassem Soleimani and PMF deputy commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis at Baghdad International Airport in January 2020.
Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel in April, launching hundreds of missiles and drones in response to an Israeli strike that killed several Iranian military officials at an Iranian consular building in Syria.
Iranian officials have continued to vow retaliation for Haniyeh’s death, without offering details over the potential timing or method.
Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani, who discussed Iran’s capabilities against Israel in an exclusive interview with Newsweek last month, told Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto during a phone call Tuesday that “it is necessary to stand up against this evil entity that is the root cause of instability in the region and to take countermeasures in accordance with international law so that the other side cannot step up its acts of aggression in the region,” according to an Iranian Foreign Ministry read out.
Newly elected Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, whose swearing in ceremony was attended by Haniyeh just hours before his death, also affirmed Iran’s right to respond during a meeting Tuesday in Tehran with Russian Security Council President Sergei Shoigu.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran in no way seeks to expand the scope of war and crisis in the region,” Pezeshkian said, according to a readout from his office, “but this regime will definitely receive a response to its crimes and insolence.”
This is a developing news story. More information will be added as it becomes available.
