Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
A barrage of rockets has reportedly landed close to an airbase in Iraq’s western province of Anbar, where American military forces are stationed.
News outlets reported that at least four BM-21 Grad rockets were launched at Ain al-Asad Airbase, located about 160 kilometers (100 miles) west of the capital Baghdad, on Saturday evening.
The Security Media Cell, affiliated with the Iraqi prime minister’s office, said two projectiles fell outside the base, without causing significant losses.
It added that security forces have opened an investigation to find out the circumstances of the incident.
سقوط صاروخين خارج قاعدة عين الاسد العراقية في محافظة الأنبار مساء اليوم السبت، دون خسائر تذكر.
من جانبها فتحت القوات الأمنية تحقيقاً لمعرفة ملابسات الحادث، وسنوافيكم التفاصيل لاحقاً.— خلية الإعلام الأمني?? (@SecMedCell) April 30, 2022
A group calling itself “International Resistance” has claimed responsibility for the attack, which is the latest in a series of assaults that have targeted US occupation forces over the past few months.
Back on April 8, two combat drones hit targets inside the same Iraqi airbase.
Turkish warplanes launched new air raids on Iraqi Kurdistan
Meanwhile, Turkish military aircraft have launched airstrikes on purported militant positions in Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
Turkish fighter jets and helicopter gunships heavily bombed the Amadiya area in the Duhok district of the region early on Sunday.
Iraq has slammed Turkish military operations on its soil as unlawful.
Last week, Sahaf told the Iraqi News Agency that there was a pre-2003 agreement between Ankara and Baghdad that temporarily permitted Turkish military forces, under certain circumstances, to cross five kilometers over the border in pursuit of PKK militants for a limited number of days in coordination with the Iraqi government.
However, in 2009, the Iraqi parliament canceled all agreements permitting Turkish troop to enter the country, Sahaf noted.
Last month, Turkey announced its latest cross-border incursion into Iraq, codenamed Operation Claw-Lock. The air-and-ground military attacks target suspected PKK positions in the Zab, Basiyan, Avasheen, and Korajiwar districts in the Kurdistan Region.
The Iraqi government summoned the Turkish ambassador, Ali Riza Guney, handed him a “strongly worded” protest note over the offensive, and called the operation a blatant violation of its sovereignty.
On the other hand, Ankara summoned the Iraqi charge d’affaires and informed him those military operations will continue if Baghdad doesn’t take action against PKK members.
Calls have been growing for Baghdad to take the matter of Turkey’s repeated attacks to the United Nations Security Council and the Arab League.
Militants of the PKK — designated as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union — regularly clash with Turkish forces in the Kurdish-dominated southeast of Turkey attached to northern Iraq.
A shaky ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015. Attacks on Turkish security forces have soared ever since.
