Yesterday, 33 Katyusha rockets targeted the Iraqi military base of Al-Taji, north of Baghdad, in which two American soldiers and another British one were killed in a similar attack last Wednesday, according to Iraqi and American security sources.
The Iraqi army said in a statement that the Taji camp was subjected to a "blatant aggression", with 33 Katyusha rockets falling on Iraqi air defense units and near the international coalition mission against the "ISIS" terrorist organization.
The statement added that the security forces found seven platforms from which rockets were launched in the "Abu Azam" area near Taji, north of Baghdad, and found 24 missiles ready for launch.
The attack is the 23rd since the end of last October against American interests in Iraq, and comes after the killing of six Iraqis, including five policemen, in American raids Thursday night in response to Wednesday's bloody attack.
No one has claimed responsibility for the missile attack on the military base, but Washington usually accuses the pro-Iranian factions of launching similar attacks.
The coalition said in a tweet on the social networking site «Twitter», that yesterday's attack resulted in the injury of three of its forces, and three of the Iraqi forces, while security sources said that the Iraqi army found an empty truck with a rocket launcher and some unused Katyusha rockets.
Yesterday, the Baghdad Operations Command announced that it had arrested all employees of the checkpoint near the rocket launch site as part of the investigations.
Without adopting the attack on Wednesday, the Hezbollah Brigades welcomed the firing of 18 missiles at the Taji base, and Washington subsequently launched retaliatory strikes targeting, according to a statement by the US Defense Ministry, the headquarters of the Hezbollah Brigades, which killed six police, the army, and a civilian. One. A US military source confirmed to "France Press" that the cloudy sky prevented the American reconnaissance planes from flying.
The Taji base is currently considered a major center for harboring American and international coalition forces, after withdrawing them from other bases in the wake of Iranian-American tension, and revenge operations for the killing of the influential Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, and the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Committee, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in a US strike in Baghdad.
The Iraqi Foreign Ministry denounced "American aggression" shortly after Friday's raids, and summoned the ambassadors of the United States and Britain, also announcing that it would submit a complaint to the United Nations and the Security Council. Iraqi forces continue to carry out operations with coalition forces against ISIS, but the Iraqi parliament recently voted to withdraw 5,200 American soldiers from the country, and this measure still requires the government to implement it.
However, Iraq has faced a political stalemate for several months, and the government that resigned last December has not yet been replaced, due to the lack of consensus in Parliament, which is the most fragmented in modern Iraqi history, and politicians are now also finding it difficult to meet for fear of the spread of the new Corona virus.
The missiles fell on Iraqi air defense units and near the international coalition mission.