US Ain al Asad military base comes under drone attack
Two unmanned drones have reportedly targeted Ain al Asad military base in western Iraq, the position US forces have taken in Iraq’s Anbar Province.
Share It :
Two combat drones hit targets inside Ain al-Asad about 160 km west of Baghdad on Sunday morning, said Sabereen News, a Telegram news channel associated with Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units better known by the Arabic name as Hashd al-Sha’abi.
The report said C-RAM and Patriot missile systems deployed at the base were not able to intercept the aircraft.
The Security Media Cell affiliated with the Iraqi prime minister’s office, however, said the drones had been shot down.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet, which is the latest in a series of assaults that have targeted US occupation forces over the past few months.
Back on May 24, a barrage of rockets landed inside the same airbase. An unmanned aerial surveillance system also attacked Ain al-Asad on May 8, and a hangar for military aircraft was damaged as a result.
The attacks come amid growing anti-US sentiment, which has intensified since last year's assassination of Hashd al-Sha'abi deputy head Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and the region's legendary anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.
Two days after the attack, Iraqi lawmakers approved a bill that requires the government to end the presence of all foreign military forces led by the US in the country.
On January 8, 2020, Iran hit Ain al-Asad with a barrage of precision missiles that left more than 100 American forces with “traumatic brain injuries”, according to the Pentagon.
Iran described the missile attack on Ain al-Assad as a “first slap.”
On April 8, Iraq and the US said they had agreed on the eventual withdrawal of US “combat” troops from Iraq, and that the two sides would hold talks to work out the timing.
The mission of US forces is now allegedly focused on “training” Iraqi troops to fight Daesh, but American troops target popular anti-terror fighters from time to time.
Iraqi resistance groups have warned that they will treat the American troops as occupying forces and take up arms against them if they refuse to leave their country.
