Iraq: A car bomb attack by a booby-trapped drone on a base housing American forces

Iraqi security sources reported that the Ain Al-Assad air base in Anbar Governorate, in the west of the country, was attacked by a booby-trapped drone. The base includes American forces, and it was subjected to a missile attack last Tuesday.

The sources pointed out that the drone exploded inside the Ain Al-Asad air base without any casualties or material losses.

The sources indicated that the Iraqi and coalition forces were mobilized inside the Ain Al-Assad base, in anticipation of other possible attacks.

Last Tuesday, a missile attack targeted the Ain Al-Assad base, in the third operation of its kind against US forces in Iraq, within 3 days.

“Two Katyusha rockets landed at Ain Al-Asad Air Base in Anbar Governorate, without human or material losses,” the Security Media Cell of the Joint Operations Command in Iraq said in a statement.

The cell explained that the two rockets landed in an empty square in the base, which is one of the largest military bases in Iraq, and includes a special section in which US military forces are present.

Similar missile attacks occurred Sunday and Monday against bases housing US forces at Baghdad International Airport and northern Baghdad, and the latest attack coincided with the visit of a high-ranking American delegation headed by the White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk to Baghdad.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but Washington regularly accuses Iraqi armed factions close to Iran of targeting its forces and diplomats in Iraq.

Since US President Joe Biden took power at the end of last January, about 30 attacks with improvised explosive devices or missiles have targeted logistical columns of the international coalition, bases containing American soldiers, and the US embassy in Baghdad. These attacks resulted in the killing of foreign contractors, 9 Iraqis, including one contractor, and 8 civilians.

The attacks reached a new level in mid-April last, when Iraqi factions loyal to Iran carried out for the first time a bombed drone attack on a military base hosting Americans at Erbil airport (in the north of the country).