Fresh rocket attack hits Iraq base

Rockets hit a base housing US troops in Iraq yesterday, wounding at least three American and two Iraqi troops in an attack that is likely to intensify tensions between the United States and Iran.

Colonel Myles Caggins, a US military spokesman, said at least 25 107 mm rockets hit Camp Taji, a base north of Baghdad. Two of the Americans were seriously injured, the military said, adding that Iraqi security forces had made an arrest.

The Iraqi military said in a statement that the ‘‘blatant attack’’ had struck Iraqi air defence units and warned the perpetrators and those who may have enabled them. It said seven rocket launchers had been found in a garage near the base, along with two dozen rockets that had not been fired.

‘‘Those who conducted this attack must declare themselves to be dealt with by the law,’’ the statement said.

The government’s Joint Operations Command ‘‘considers any party that mobilises and legitimises these actions as a potential partner,’’ it added.

The attack followed a rocket barrage on Taji on Wednesday that killed two American troops and a British service member. In response, the US military launched strikes on Saturday on targets associated with Kataib Hezbollah, the Iranian-linked militia that Washington blamed for those deaths.

The US retaliation prompted protest from the Iraqi government, which called it a ‘‘violation of national sovereignty.’’

Iraqi officials said the attack killed five members of local security forces.

The government yesterday repeated its appeal against unilateral US military action targeting actors in Iraq. – TNS