Iraq's military said Saturday that 33 Katyusha rockets had been launched on Taji base north of Baghdad which houses U.S.-led coalition troops and said the attack critically injured several Iraqi air defense servicemen.
The military found seven rocket launchers and 24 unused rockets in the nearby Abu Izam area, it said in a statement, and promised to arrest those responsible.
The military said the U.S. or other foreign forces should not use the attack as pretext to take military action without Iraq's approval. It called on all foreign troops to quickly implement a parliamentary resolution calling for their withdrawal.
It was the 23rd such attack since late October on installations across Iraq where American troops and diplomats are based, with the latest rounds growing deadlier.
None of the attacks have ever been claimed but the U.S. has blamed hardline elements of the Hashed al-Shaabi, a network of armed groups incorporated into the Iraqi state.
The U.S.-led coalition's surveillance capabilities have been impaired by cloudy weather in recent days, which the U.S. official said may have contributed to the attackers' readiness to launch the rockets during the day instead of under the cover of night.
Taji is overcrowded with members of the U.S.-led coalition helping Iraq fight militant remnants, after units were moved to the air base from other installations.
It came three days after a similar attack on the base killed two American military personnel and a British soldier - the deadliest such incident at an Iraqi base in years.
The U.S. responded Friday with air strikes on arms depots it said were used by Kataeb Hezbollah, an Iran-aligned faction within the Hashed.
At least five members of Iraq's security forces and one civilian were killed, none of them members of the Hashed, according to Iraq's military.
Iraq has long feared it would get caught in the spiraling tensions between Iran and the U.S., its two main allies.
They dramatically spiked in late 2019 when a U.S. contractor was killed in a rocket attack on a separate base in northern Iraq, leading to retaliatory American strikes on Kataeb Hezbollah.
Days later, a U.S. drone strike killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and Hashed deputy chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
Iraq's parliament then voted to oust all foreign troops from the country, but the decision has not yet been implemented.
AFP
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