BAGHDAD, July 28 (NNN-NINA) – An Iraqi army’s helicopter was damaged by an attack of three Katyusha rockets, last night, on a military base, housing U.S. forces, near Iraq’s capital Baghdad, the Iraqi military said.
The three rockets, which landed on al-Taji Camp, some 20 km north of Baghdad, were fired from the nearby Sabaa al-Bour area, and one of them hit the army’s 15th Squadron of helicopter gunships and caused great damage to a helicopter, the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a statement.
A second rocket landed on the artillery and weapons repair factory, causing material damage, while a third landed in the army’s 2nd Squadron of helicopters but did not explode, according to the statement.
“The Iraqi security forces will continue to pursue those involved in these attacks to bring them to justice,” the statement noted.
Earlier in the evening, an Interior Ministry source said, three rockets landed in al-Taji Camp, but the casualties are still unclear.
Al-Taji Camp is a huge military base containing an air base where some U.S. troops are stationed.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Iraqi military bases housing U.S. troops across Iraq and the U.S. embassy in the Green Zone have been frequently targeted by mortar and rocket attacks.
Iraqi-U.S. relations have witnessed a tension since Jan 3, when a U.S. drone struck a convoy at Baghdad airport, which killed Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq’s paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces.
The U.S. airstrike prompted the Iraqi parliament on Jan 5, to pass a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in the country.
More than 5,000 U.S. troops are deployed in Iraq, to support Iraqi forces in battles against the Daesh militants, mainly for training and advisory purposes.– NNN-NINA
