3 rockets hit military airbase in Iraq's Salahudin province

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Xinhua, August 14, 2020
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BAGHDAD, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Three Katyusha rockets on Thursday landed on an Iraqi military airbase in Iraq's Salahudin province, the Iraqi military said.

The attack took place in the evening when the Katyusha rockets landed in Balad airbase, some 80 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, with minor damages, the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said in a statement.

More information is to be released later about the attack, the statement added.

Meanwhile, a provincial security source anonymously told Xinhua that three Katyusha rockets landed inside the airbase, which is housing the Iraqi F-16 fighter jets and a group of experts from two U.S. companies for maintenance and training purposes.

The attack caused only minor damages, the source said without giving further details.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the rocket attack, but Baghdad airport and the Iraqi military bases housing U.S. troops across Iraq, as well as the U.S. embassy in the Green Zone, have been frequently targeted by mortar and rocket attacks.

The Iraqi-U.S. relations have witnessed a tension since Jan. 3 when a U.S. drone struck a convoy at Baghdad airport, which killed Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces.

The U.S. airstrike prompted the Iraqi parliament on Jan. 5 to pass a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in the country.

More than 5,000 U.S. troops have been deployed in Iraq to support the Iraqi forces in the battles against the Islamic State militants, mainly providing training and advising to the Iraqi forces. Enditem

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