Two US and British soldiers killed in attack on anti-IS coalition base in Iraq

At least a dozen rockets have hit the Taji base (northern Baghdad) causing 10 injuries, according to US sources, who have not specified their nationalities.

A Katyusha attack of 10 rockets hit the Taji military base in northern Baghdad late Wednesday. The onslaught has claimed at least three lives, those of two members of the US troops and a British military deployed in the complex , and has left ten wounded, US sources have confirmed.

Sources from the international coalition against the self-styled Islamic State (IS) have reported that some of the uniformed people hit by the rocket blast – the most serious in recent months – have suffered “critical” injuries but have not specified the nationalities of the wounded . The Taji base is 85 kilometers north of the Iraqi capital.

Iraqi security forces had previously announced the discovery of a white van used as a launch pad with three unused missiles in southern Rashidiya, on the opposite bank of the Tigris River. Initially, Baghdad had claimed that there had been no fatalities.

So far, the attack has not been claimed by any group. Rocket launches against military bases that host contingents of the international coalition led by Washington and in which Spain participates have become increasingly frequent in recent months. They have increased considerably since the beginning of last January, after the attack with a US drone that killed the Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.

Washington points to the constellation of Iranian-backed Shiite militias under “Hashid Shaabi” (Popular Mobilization, in Arabic) as responsible for the attacks. One of the main targets of the missiles has been the fortified Green Zone of Baghdad , a central district of the capital in which ministerial seats, the Parliament, the American embassy or the coalition headquarters are located.

In a parallel incident, the bases of a Shiite militia near Tehran on the border between Syria and Iraq were targeted on Wednesday by a series of air strikes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an organization with a wide network of informants, has reported. on the terrain.

GENERAL SOLEIMANI’S DEATH

On January 8, in retaliation for the Soleimani assassination, Iran launched 14 ballistic missiles at the Ain al Asad bases in the western province of Al Anbar, and an air base in Erbil in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. The so-called “Operation Martyr Soleimani” was killed without fatalities, but, weeks later, the US Department of Defense ended up acknowledging that up to 110 members of its contingent had been treated for traumatic brain injuries resulting from the incident.

The trigger for the crisis was the attack attributed to Kataeb Hezbollah – founded in 2003 by Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, also killed in the drone attack – that on December 27 shook a military base in Kirkuk, killing the life of an Iraqi contractor -U.S.

Some 5,200 US troops are currently deployed to Iraq as “guests” by the Iraqi government since the IS eruption in 2014. In January, the Parliament, with enthusiastic support from the Shiite bloc, approved the request to withdraw the military presence the country in a session boycotted by the Sunni and Kurdish minorities but the measure has not been implemented, in a difficult political situation.

Since the beginning of December, following Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi’s resignation , the Hemicycle has struggled unsuccessfully to appoint a successor and forge a new Cabinet. Earlier this month the candidate to succeed him, Mohamed Tawfiq Allawi, resigned, citing the obstacles raised by the parties, after the parliamentary session to vote his Cabinet was postponed twice due to lack of a quorum. Since October Iraq has been witnessing a wave of protests demanding the end of the “establishment” that has ruled the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and which they accuse of corruption, sectarianism and negligence.

INCREASED SECURITY

The attack on Wednesday coincides with the announcement made yesterday by the head of the US Central Command, General Kenneth McKenzie , about the increase in security measures in the Iraqi bases where they have a presence. “We are in the midst of introducing air defense and ballistic missile defense systems into Iraq, particularly to protect ourselves against another potential Iranian attack,” McKenzie acknowledged.

“Since May 2019, Iran’s ‘proxies’ and Shiite militias in Iraq have increased attacks against US interests and carried out dozens of reconnaissance flights with unmanned aerial systems in the vicinity of US bases and the Iraqi security forces, “said the senior military official.

The new onslaught, a revival of the escalation that has made Iraq a battleground between Iranians and Americans, comes three days after two American soldiers lost their lives in the Qaraqosh mountain area during a joint operation with forces. Iraqi security forces against a remnant of the IS .

“The two US members were killed by the enemy while advising and accompanying the Iraqi special forces during a mission to eliminate an IS stronghold in a mountainous area of ​​north central Iraq,” the Pentagon said in a brief statement. In the operation, 25 jihadist militants were liquidated and nine tunnels destroyed .

The resurgence of the IS worries the Iraqi security forces. Tanned in the insurgency, the movement has increased its actions in recent months, with the placement of improvised explosive devices, targeted assassinations, and ambushes of Iraqi troops in Saladin, Kirkuk, Diyala or Nineveh provinces . In Syria, the flurries of war and extremism incubated in the Al Hol and Al Roj camps – where family members of militants of the group live – also contribute to the rebirth of the last hosts.