US, UK troops among 3 dead in Iraq rocket attack: US official
12 March, 2020
An American soldier and a British soldier, together with one All of us contractor, were killed Wednesday when rockets hit an Iraqi armed service basic north of Baghdad, a All of us military official said.
It was the deadliest strike on an unit installation hosting foreign troops in several years and employs a good spate of rocket episodes targeting US troops across Iraq plus the US embassy found in Baghdad.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Washington has blamed Iran-backed factions for similar attacks.
The Iraqi army had earlier said the attack against the Taji bottom did not wound anyone or cause any destruction, in that which was the 22nd attack against American army interests in the country since late October.
Past rocket attacks targeting All of us soldiers, diplomats and facilities on Iraq lately have killed one All of us contractor and an Iraqi soldier.
Two days following the loss of life of an American found in rockets fired on an Iraqi military foundation in Kirkuk at the end of last year, the united states army reach five bases found in Iraq and Syria employed by the pro-Iran armed faction Kataeb Hezbollah.
Tensions in that case rose further between arch foes Washington and Tehran, leading to the assassination in Baghdad on January 3 of the powerful Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani and a great Iraqi paramilitary commander found in a US drone hit.
Iran retaliated by launching a good volley of missiles at an Iraqi bottom hosting US soldiers times later.
The US leads a global coalition -- comprised of dozens of countries and a large number of soldiers -- formed in Iraq in 2014 to confront the Islamic State, a jihadist group that Baghdad declared defeated in late 2017.
While IS has shed its territory, sleeper cells remain with the capacity of carrying out attacks.
The Iraqi parliament voted to expel all foreign soldiers from the united states in the wake of the killing of Soleimani, a decision that must definitely be executed by the government.
The outgoing government, which resigned in December in the face of mass protests, has yet to be replaced because of a lack of agreement in parliament -- just about the most divided in Iraq's recent history.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com