Iraq: interception of two drones over a base housing American soldiers
US soldier patrolling Iraq (illustrative image).
AHMAD AL-RUBAYE AFP / File
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
In Iraq, two drones were intercepted and shot down over an Iraqi base housing US soldiers.
Since April 2021, the coalition forces have been facing these drone attacks, which are more dangerous than the many rockets that have been targeting them for almost two years, because they are difficult to trace.
The pro-Iran militias are singled out.
Publicity
Read more
With our correspondent in Baghdad,
Lucile Wassermann
It was the American anti-aircraft defense system C-RAM that sprayed the two drones that flew over the Ain al-Assad base in western Iraq last night.
The attack is therefore a failure, but it worries.
Because if the American soldiers based on the spot are regularly targeted by rocket fire, the use of drones is more recent.
Pro-Iran militias accused
The first such attack was observed last April, when one of these aircraft targeted a CIA hangar in the area of Erbil airport, in the north of the country.
A similar attack also took place last May on the same military base, targeted overnight.
They have not been claimed, but the Iraqi army accuses the pro-Iran militias.
New tactics
The concern is not so much about the damage caused during these attacks, which remain limited, but more about the capacity of these armed groups to develop and adapt new tactics to reach their targets.
The number of attacks has declined somewhat since Joe Biden took over as President of the United States, but periodically, militias threaten to increase pressure on American troops, whom they wish to see from the territory.
►
To read also: Iraq: new attack with a "trapped drone" against American soldiers
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Iraq
United States
Defense
Terrorism
On the same subject
Iran: the assassins of General Soleimani will be "nowhere safe"
Iraq: rockets target a base housing American soldiers in Kurdistan
Iran: one year after Soleimani's assassination, Tehran fears US attack