Strikes target bases housing U.S. troops

BAGHDAD — U.S.backed Syrian fighters and American troops foiled an attack with drones Wednesday on a base housing members of the U.S.led coalition in eastern Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces said. In neighboring Iraq, rockets hit a base housing U.S. troops, inflicting two minor injuries.

The attacks come as tension has been on the rise between U.S. troops and Iranbacked fighters after American air strikes in eastern Syria killed four Iraqi fighters late last month in areas along the SyriaIraq border. The Pentagon said targets attacked on June 27 were facilities used by Iranbacked militia groups to support drone strikes inside Iraq.

The spokesman for the U.S.led coalition, Col. Wayne Marotto, said that AlAssad Air Base in western Iraq was attacked early in the afternoon by 14 rockets that landed on the base and its perimeter, prompting the activation of defensive measures. Marotto later tweeted: “100 % accountability at Ain AlAssad Air Base after rocket attack. Two personnel sustained minor injuries.” The damage was still to be assessed, he added without elaborating.

A statement from the Security Media Cell, affiliated with Iraq’s security forces, said a mobile rocket launcher hidden in a truck loaded with bags of flour and parked in the nearby village of Baghdadi was used in the attack. It added that 14 rockets were fired toward the base while the rest exploded on the truck, damaging some village homes and a mosque.

A previously unknown group calling itself “The brigades to avenge alMuhandis,” said its members fired 30 rockets toward the base “run by American occupiers.” It added a message to U.S. troops: “We will force you to leave our lands defeated.”

The group is named after Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi alMuhandis, who was killed last year in a U.S. drone attack in Baghdad along with Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

In Syria, the U.S.backed and Kurdishled forces said in a statement they foiled an attack that was using drones on Wednesday morning on the alOmar oil field in the eastern province of Deir elZour. There were no damages, the statement said.

The Britainbased Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the drones took off from areas controlled by Iranbacked fighters in the eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen.