Site of impact at al-Asad Air Base, Iraq, following a rocket attack on March 3, 2021. No US or coalition service members were injured by the approximately 10 rockets that hit the base; one US civilian contractor suffered a cardiac episode while sheltering and died shortly after. US Army National Guard photo by Sgt. 1st Class Christie R. Smith, courtesy of DVIDS.
The spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, the multinational military coalition against the Islamic State Group, tweeted that al-Asad air base in Anbar province, Iraq, was targeted Tuesday by a rocket attack. Col. Wayne Marotto said two Katyusha rockets landed in “an empty square” on the air base, which houses US personnel, causing no casualties and inflicting “no material losses.”
Initial report: @SecMedCell reports two Katyusha rockets landed in an empty square at Ain Al-Asad Air Base AAAB in Anbar Governorate. No casualties or material losses. For more information see @SecMedCell or @IraqiSpoxMOD
— OIR Spokesman Col. Wayne Marotto (@OIRSpox) May 4, 2021
Installations around Iraq housing US military personnel and contractors have been targeted more than 20 times since President Joe Biden took office in January of this year. Most recently, Balad air base was targeted April 18. On that day, five Katyusha rockets impacted around that installation, hitting a dormitory. Three Iraqi soldiers and two “foreign contractors” were wounded.
Days earlier, on April 14, the Erbil air base in northern Iraq was targeted by an armed drone, the first time such a tactic has been used against US forces operating in that country.
While no group has claimed responsibility for the Tuesday attack on al-Asad, Reuters reports that US officials in Iraq regularly blame Iranian-backed militias for such actions. The installation was targeted by 10 rockets on March 3.
Additionally, al-Asad is located in the so-called “Sunni triangle,” which saw heavy fighting during the US-led occupation of Iraq from 2003 to 2010. More recently, Anbar province served as a major base of operations for the Islamic State group, or ISIS, as it attempted to establish its so-called “caliphate.”
According to NBC News, on April 7 US and Iraqi political leaders agreed to remove the remaining US troops from Iraq, although a specific timeline for a withdrawal has yet to be established.
Read Next:
James Webb served as a US Marine infantryman from 2005 to 2010, completing a combat tour in Iraq. He’s worked as a freelance writer and photojournalist covering US troops in Afghanistan, and Webb spent more than two years in the US Senate as a military legislative assistant and as the personal representative of a member on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
In this installment of “Dear Jack,” Marine veteran Jack Mandaville helps a career service member figure out life after retirement.
Growing mental health distress in the ranks carries such grave implications that the U.S. chief of n...
After living in and reporting from Ukraine the last nine years, conflict journalist Nolan Peterson h...
Nondice Thurman, a spokesperson for Fort Campbell, said Thursday morning that the deaths happened the previous night in southwestern Kentucky during a routine training mission.
Master Sgt. Richard Stayskal was diagnosed with lung cancer long after military doctors missed a tum...
With bandaged heads and splinted limbs, the wounded soldiers are stretchered into the waiting medica...
While it’s not the first time the U.S. and Iran have traded airstrikes in Syria, the attack and the ...
"The Gift" tells the story of the first Marine to receive the Medal of Honor after the Vietnam War. ...
