Drone Attacks Target Military Base Housing US Troops in Iraq
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Iraqi military said on Sunday that two drones were detected and shot down by air defenses near Iraq's Ain al-Assad airbase, which is home to US forces.
The military said in a statement the drones were intercepted and shot down at around 12:30 a.m. local time, Reuters reported.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday's attack.
A separate rocket attack late on Saturday targeted the area of the Baghdad International Airport which also hosts US forces, two Iraqi security sources said. There were no reported damages or casualties, they said.
Iraqi security forces found a rocket launcher with a timer in a rural area in western Baghdad which was used in the attack, said one security official.
US military authorities have reportedly expressed growing fears of a “rapidly evolving” threat in Iraq against some of the most secretive American installations being targeted by local forces “specialized in operating more sophisticated weaponry” -- such as armed drones – that evade US defenses.
“At least three times in the past two months, those militias have used small, explosive-laden drones that divebomb and crash into their targets in late-night attacks on (US-occupied) Iraqi bases — including those used by the CIA and US Special Operations units,” New York Times reported Saturday citing unidentified American officials.
While the US has installed defenses to counter rocket, artillery and mortar systems at its multiple military facilities across Iraq, “the armed drones fly too low to be detected by those defenses,” the daily pointed out citing the officials.
Citing three American officials familiar with the matter, the daily further pointed to a drone strike shortly before midnight on April 14 that “targeted a CIA hangar inside the airport complex in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil,” referring to the notorious US spy agency widely known for running covert operations across the globe to meddle in internal affairs of other nations.
Though no one was reported hurt in the drone strike, “it alarmed Pentagon and White House officials because of the covert nature of the facility and the sophistication of the strike,” details of which were previously reported by another influential US daily, The Washington Post.
An identical drone attack on May 8 striking the expansive Ain al-Assad military base – hosting American forces in western Anbar Province where they also operate Reaper drones — further sparked concerns among US commanders about the shifting tactics of the forces fiercely opposing the American military presence in their country following the Washington-ordered terror assassination of visiting top Iranian commander Lt. General Qassem Soleimani and other Iranian and Iraqi officers near Baghdad airport in January 2020.
The attack caused no injuries but damaged an aircraft hangar, according to a spokesman for the US-led military coalition in Iraq, Col. Wayne Marotto, as cited in the report.
