At least five rockets were fired from a city in northern Iraq at a US military base in neighboring northeastern Syria.
Two Iraqi security officials and a US official told Reuters that these attacks were carried out on Sunday.
It was the first such attack on US forces since early February. At that time, Iran-backed groups in Iraq stopped attacking US troops.
The attack happened a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani returned home from a visit to the United States. During his visit to the United States, Sudani met with President Joe Biden at the White House.
A group linked to Kataib Hezbollah said in a post on Telegram that Iraq’s armed factions have decided to resume attacks after a nearly three-month hiatus as talks over the end of the US-led military coalition’s operations have not made much progress.
Later, Sabrin News, another popular Telegram group close to Kataib Hezbollah, reported that the Iran-backed faction (Kataib Hezbollah) had not made any official statement on the matter.
More than five rockets were fired at a coalition base in Syria’s Rumalin, but no one was injured, a US official said on condition of anonymity.
The official termed the incident as a ‘failed rocket attack’. It is not clear whether the rockets could have been destroyed before they reached the base. It was not clear whether the base itself was targeted.
A US-led coalition warplane deployed in Iraq and Syria attacked the attackers’ positions after the rocket attack, the US official said.
A senior Iraqi military official and two security officials said the rockets were fired from the Iraqi city of Jumma, bordering Syria. The rocket launcher was mounted on a small truck.
An Iraqi army official said the wrecked truck has been impounded for further investigation. Preliminary investigations showed that it was destroyed in an airstrike.
“We are in contact with coalition forces in Iraq to share information about the attack,” the official said.
Iraq’s security forces’ media cell said in a statement that Iraqi forces had launched a “comprehensive search and investigation operation” vowing to bring the attackers to justice along the Syrian border.
A large explosion occurred at a military base in Iraq in the early hours of Saturday. A member of the Popular Mobilization Force (PMF), the government security force of Iraq, was killed in this. Several groups belonging to the PMF are pro-Iranian.
The PMF commander said it was an attack incident. Iraq’s military says it is investigating the incident and that no warplanes were in the air at the time of the explosion.
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