BREAKING: Rockets slam into Iraq military base housing US troops
A volley of rockets hit a US airbase Sunday in Iraqi capital Baghdad injuring at least four non-American airmen.
According to Iraqi military, there were eight Katyusha-type rockets that had slammed into the Al-Balad airbase and wounded two Iraqi officers as well as two of its airmen.
Most of the US airmen had left the airbase, which is north of Baghdad, about 80 km away. Shells were slammed on the runway and also the gate.
The Al-Balad is the primary airbase for Iraqi’s F-16s that the country bought from America to upgrade its air capacities.
A source said about 90 percent of the US employees and advisers of Sallyport and Lockheed Martin had withdrawn to Erbil and Taji following threats.
According to police officer in the northern Iraqi province of Saladin, Colonel Mohammed Khalil, three Iraqi soldiers guarding at the gate were wounded after a shell struck it.
The attack comes amid tensions of Iran with United States lately and no claim of responsibility has yet been stated.
Recently Iran had launched similar missile attacks on two Iraqi airbases housing American troops.
Iran retaliated to the assassination of its commander Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad by a US drone.
US troops housed military bases have lately been subject to such rocket attacks.
