Missiles hit US-led coalition base in Iraq

At least a dozen missiles were fired on Saturday at a military base used by US-led coalition forces in western Iraq, a US defense source and Iraqi police said.

“Al-Asad air base was targeted by 15 rockets” fired from Anbar province, which is home to the military base, an Iraqi police official from the region said.

He said 13 of the projectiles were shot down by anti-air defenses but that “two fell on the air base.”

A US defense official confirmed that “missiles impacted Al-Asad air base,” adding that a joint damage assessment was under way with coalition and Iraqi forces.

The American official said that initial reports indicated one member of the Iraqi security forces had been seriously injured.

The attack on the air base comes amid soaring tension in the Middle East following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7.

On Monday evening, Iran launched a deadly strike in northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, saying it had targeted a site used by “spies of Mossad.”

Since mid-October, there have been dozens of attacks on US and coalition forces in Iraq and Syria, deployed there to fight Daesh.

The majority of the attacks have been claimed by a loose alliance of Iran-linked armed groups that oppose US support for Israel in the Gaza war.

Washington has on several occasions launched strikes of its own in retaliation.

There are roughly 2,500 American troops in Iraq and some 900 in Syria.