Iraq militant group says it is resuming attacks on US forces as base in Syria is targeted
Source: The Guardian
Sun 21 Apr 2024 18.29 EDT
An Iraqi militant group has said it will resume attacks on US forces in the country, as it appeared to claim responsibility for a strike on an American military base in north-eastern Syria which saw at least five rockets launched from Iraq’s town of Zummar.
Sunday’s strike against US forces is the first since early February, when Iranian-backed groups in Iraq stopped their attacks against US troops. It comes one day after Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, returned from a visit to the United States and met with Joe Biden at the White House.
Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah said Iraqi armed groups had decided to resume attacks on the US presence in the country after seeing little progress on talks to achieve the exit of American troops during al-Sudani’s visit to Washington. “What happened a short while ago is the beginning,” the group said.
Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, said several rockets had been fired “from Iraqi territory at the Kharab al-Jir base” in northeast Syria, where US forces are stationed. A statement from the Iraqi security forces accused “outlaw elements of having targeted a base of the international coalition with rockets in the heart of Syrian territory”, at about 9:50pm local time.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/21/iraq-rockets-syria-us-military-base
