President Donald Trump said that trade in "no way" will be impacted by the 30-day Europe travel ban, despite saying less than an hour earlier the restrictive measures would apply to a "tremendous amount of trade and cargo."

Trump has baffled traders and ordinary netizens after he took to Twitter in the wake of his national address earlier on Wednesday to assure the public that his order to suspend all travel from Europe pertains only to the movement of people, but not goods.

Some blamed the turnaround on Trump's difficulties with reading from a teleprompter during prepared remarks. The US president is known for his propensity to go off-script during official speeches and addresses.

The gaffe sparked panic on stock markets, which tanked on the news of the sweeping travel ban.

Some have suggested that Trump only backtracked on his original statement after he saw the stock futures tumbling, however, quickly reversing course in hopes of avoiding further economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.

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Footage has emerged on social media purportedly showing a moment of the bombing raid by the US jets, with several explosions lighting up the night skies.

Several sources reported that the US responded to the attack with airstrikes against Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units in Anbar province, near the border of Iraq and Syria. No group has stepped forward to take responsibility for the attack on Camp Taji and no evidence has been presented linking any Iraqi militia to the rockets.

The rocket attack was the latest of several to hit US and coalition sites in Iraq over the past few months and the second strike on Camp Taji since January, when several rockets landed in and around the base, injuring a member of the Iraqi security forces. No group claimed responsibility for these acts.

The last time an American was killed in a rocket attack against an Iraqi base - at K-1 outside Kirkuk in December 2019 - Washington also responded with airstrikes against the PMU. This was followed by a cycle of escalation that involved an attempted storming of the US Embassy in Baghdad, a US drone strike that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps General Qassem Soleimani in January, and Iranian reprisal involving the targeting of two Iraqi bases that hosted US troops with ballistic missiles.

The Pentagon has insisted the threat of Iranian attack justifies beefing up its missile defense systems in Iraq, even though the Iraqi parliament has made clear following the Soleimani assassination that it wants all foreign troops out of the country.

A total of 18 rockets struck the base on Wednesday, the US-led coalition against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) said in a statement. The dead and wounded have not been officially identified, pending the notification of their next of kin.

In a statement early on Thursday, the Iraqi president's office condemned the "terrorist attack" that left both trainers and advisers killed and wounded.

"This attack is targeting Iraq and its security, and we stress the need to conduct full investigations to determine its background and track the elements responsible for it."

Camp Taji is a major military base about 27km north of Baghdad, used by the coalition to train Iraqi security forces.

"Last night's attack on UK and coalition personnel was a cowardly and retrograde act," UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in a statement after the MOD announced the casualty early on Thursday morning. "The people that did this are not friends of Iraq."

Some press accounts suggested the US had launched the strikes in retaliation for the assault on Camp Taji, but officials have yet to confirm American involvement. Footage shared on social media purported to show the moment of the counterattack.

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