اردو
  • Multiple rockets hit Iraq's Taji base for second time in a week

    Multiple rockets hit Iraq's Taji base for second time in a week Reuters Multiple rockets hit Iraq's Taji base for second time in a week

    Several Iraqi air defense servicemen were critically wounded on Saturday as multiple rockets hit a military base which houses U.S.-led coalition troops, in the second such strike in a week, the Iraqi military said.

    The U.S.-led coalition said three of its troops and two Iraqi soldiers were wounded in the attack.

    Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said 33 Katyusha rockets were launched near a section of the Taji base which houses coalition troops. It said the military found seven rocket launchers and 24 unused rockets in the nearby Abu Izam area.

    The military said it would arrest those responsible.

    No group has claimed responsibility for the attack which, unlike recent similar attacks, took place in daylight hours.

    An Iraqi colonel inside the base had earlier told Reuters he heard rockets hit the site and sirens blaring.

    A similar rocket attack on Wednesday on Taji, 20 km (12 miles) north of Baghdad, killed two U.S. troops and a British soldier, prompting Washington to launch retaliatory air strikes on Thursday which killed six Iraqis.

    The Iraqi military said on Saturday that neither the United States nor other foreign forces should use the latest attack as a pretext to take military action without Iraq’s approval, and should instead hasten to implement a parliamentary resolution expelling them.

    Iraq condemned the U.S. air strikes on Friday, saying they were a violation of its sovereignty and targeted aggression against its regular armed forces.

    Longstanding antagonism between the United States and Iran has mostly played out on Iraqi soil in recent months.