US airbase in Iraq targeted by drones in second such attack in months
The Ain al-Asad air base housing US troops in Iraq has come under a drone attack, a week ahead of an expected visit by a high-level Iraqi military delegation to Washington to continue talks on ending the American-led military coalition's presence in the Arab country.
Several explosions were heard in the base located in the western province of Anbar after it was hit by two drones on Tuesday, according to sources, with no casualties or damage being reported.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.
This is the second strike since attacks against US bases in Iraq were suspended in late January and early February.
According to a US official, two drones had been shot down near the Ain al-Asad base in April.
This is the latest in a series of attacks against US bases in Iraq and Syria that is fueled by Washington's support for Israeli atrocities.
Many such attacks against the US forces have been claimed by groups operating under the banner of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.
Tuesday’s attack comes at a sensitive timing ahead of negotiations in Washington next week on the future of the US-led coalition in Iraq.
Back in January, Baghdad and Washington agreed to set up a committee to start talks to set a timetable for a phased withdrawal of American forces from the Arab country.
The two countries agreed to form working groups that would eventually lead to the gradual reduction of US-led collation advisers on Iraqi soil.
Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani, have repeatedly called for US troops' expulsion from their country.
Iraqi resistance groups have also been pressing for an end to the presence of foreign forces in Iraq more than a decade after a US-led coalition invaded the Arab country in blatant violation of international law based on false claims of Iraq having weapons of mass destruction at the time.
There are nearly 2,500 American troops in Iraq and some 900 in Syria as part of, what Washington claims to be, a fighting force against Daesh.
The US has maintained its presence, although, the Arab countries and their allies defeated the Takfiri terrorist group in late 2017.
In 2020, the Iraqi parliament voted for the expulsion of US forces. Days earlier, Iran's top anti-terror commander martyr General Qassem Soleimani and deputy PMU commander Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis had been assassinated in a cowardly drone strike ordered by then US president Donald Trump outside of the Baghdad airport.
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