RTSat, 14 Mar 2020 17:53 UTC
© AFP / Mohammed Sawaf
An Iraqi base hosting foreign military service members was hit by a barrage of rockets on Saturday, Iraqi officials have said. A similar attack on Wednesday killed three people, including two Americans.
A dozen rockets hit Camp Taji north of capital Baghdad,
Stars and Stripes reported, citing Iraqi officials. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Unconfirmed reports on Iraqi social media said
as many as 20 Katyusha rockets had been fired at the base.
The Wednesday attack on Camp Taji claimed three lives and left a dozen more injured. The soldiers killed were identified as a 27-year-old US Army specialist, a 28-year-old US Air Force staff sergeant and a 26-year-old British lance corporal reservist with the Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry.
The US and Britain retaliated for the attack by launching airstrikes at Iraqi bases hosting Iraqi Shia militias, which Pantagon blamed for the attack.
Comment: The Iraqi military are
warning that this rocket attack does not warrant a retaliation from the Americans. The attack apparently left several Iraqi air defense soldiers critically wounded. Such attacks have been a pretty regular occurrence since the assassination of Soleimani. They'll probably continue as long as the U.S. refuses to leave Iraq. They're there illegally now, after all, but that has never stopped them in the past.
The Americans had "retaliated" to the previous attack by attacking five sites that killed 3 Iraqi soldiers, two police and a civilian. These strikes are most likely revenge for those attacks. This comes after the U.S. military
said that their "retaliation" would "have an effect on deterring ... future strikes of this nature." Right. It doesn't help that the positions they targeted weren't even Kataib Hezbollah, whom the Americans blamed for the previous rockets.
Comment: The Iraqi military are warning that this rocket attack does not warrant a retaliation from the Americans. The attack apparently left several Iraqi air defense soldiers critically wounded. Such attacks have been a pretty regular occurrence since the assassination of Soleimani. They'll probably continue as long as the U.S. refuses to leave Iraq. They're there illegally now, after all, but that has never stopped them in the past.
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The Americans had "retaliated" to the previous attack by attacking five sites that killed 3 Iraqi soldiers, two police and a civilian. These strikes are most likely revenge for those attacks. This comes after the U.S. military said that their "retaliation" would "have an effect on deterring ... future strikes of this nature." Right. It doesn't help that the positions they targeted weren't even Kataib Hezbollah, whom the Americans blamed for the previous rockets.