Iran-backed Iraqi militia says drone struck US base in Erbil

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An Iranian-backed Iraqi militia on Wednesday said it targeted the Harir airbase in Erbil province which houses US personnel with a drone strike, marking the second reported attack in a day on US troops in Iraq as a retaliatory measure to Washington’s support for Israel. 

The attacks came after pro-Iran Iraqi militias warned the US that its bases and troops in Iraq would become “legitimate targets” if it decided to directly intervene in the ongoing Israel-Gaza war. 

“We announce the targeting by a drone of the Harir American occupation base in northern Iraq at exactly twelve o’clock in the afternoon on Wednesday,” said a Telegram statement by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of shadow Iraqi militia groups backed by Iran and affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). 

No casualties or material damages have been reported so far. 

The statement described the attack as a retaliatory strike in support of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, launched by Palestinian Hamas militants against Israel earlier this month. 

Harir airbase, also referred to by the US as Bashur airbase, is located around 70 kilometers northeast of Erbil city and has been a major airfield for coalition forces since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. 

Rudaw English reached out to the US-led coalition for further information about the attack but they were not readily available. 

Earlier on Wednesday, US officials told Reuters that the military had thwarted an attack against its forces in western Iraq’s Ain al-Asad airbase, and had intercepted the “one-way attack drones” before they could strike the base. 

Located in Anbar province, Ain al-Asad airbase houses US-led coalition personnel and Iraqi army troops. 

American military bases in Iraq and Syria have come under threat from attacks by rockets and explosive-laden drones, especially following the US assassination of Qasem Soleimani, head of the IRGC’s elite Quds Force, and Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi) deputy commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in Baghdad in Janaury 2020. The attacks have mostly been blamed on pro-Iran militia groups. 

Attacks on American military instillations in Iraq, however, have greatly decreased in number since last year. 

The US said at the time that Soleimani was planning imminent action against US personnel in Iraq, a country long torn between the competing demands of its principal allies Washington and Tehran.

Iraqi leaders have blasted Israel for its ongoing attacks on Gaza, which have killed thousands, and leaders of Iraqi militia groups have condemned the US for its strong support for Israel.