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Old 03-12-2020, 08:07 AM
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Arrow Two US troops, 1 coalition member killed, as more than 15 rockets slam Iraqi base

Two US troops, 1 coalition member killed, as more than 15 rockets slam Iraqi base
By: Shawn Snow - Military Times - 03-12-20
Re: https://www.militarytimes.com/flashp...20Bird%20Brief

Photo link: https://www.armytimes.com/resizer/4T...FWLGTXLGDM.jpg
A Shiite Iraqi fighter, loyal to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, loads a missile launcher during clashes with Islamic State militant group fighters in Jurf al-Sakher, north of the Shiite shrine city of Karbala on October 19, 2014. (MOHAMMED SAWAF/AFP/Getty Images)

Two U.S. service members and a troop from a coalition partner nation were killed in a rocket attack in Iraq, a Defense Department official told Military Times Wednesday.

The official said that there were also about a dozen people were injured in a volley of 18 rockets that hit Iraq’s Camp Taji base.

Shortly after the attack news reports emerged that the third person killed was a UK national. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence said that the government is "aware of an incident involving UK service personnel at Camp Taji, Iraq. An investigation is underway, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”

Camp Taji, located just north of Baghdad, has been used as a training base for a number of years. There are as many as 6,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, training and advising Iraqi forces and conducting counterterrorism missions.

2nd photo link: https://www.armytimes.com/resizer/HF...ZCHHM24ILQ.jpg
Maj. Gen. Flem B. "Donnie" Walker speaks with soldiers at Camp Taji, Iraq, June 8, 2019. (Spc. Briana Alfaro/Army National Guard)

Officials did not say what group they believe launched the rocket attack, but Kataib Hezbollah or another Iranian-backed Shia militia group is likely. Officials with OIR confirmed 107 mm rockets were used in the attack, a favorite weapon of choice for Iran-backed militias operating in Iraq.

Kataib Hezbollah “has functioned as a spear point for IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] in Iraq. The rockets used are quite popular with Iran’s proxies,” Phillip Smyth, a research fellow with the Washington Institute, tweeted Wednesday.

Kataib Hezbollah was responsible for a late December rocket attack on a military base in Kirkuk that killed a U.S. contractor, prompting American military strikes in response.

That in turn led to protests at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. They were followed Jan. 3 by a U.S. airstrike that killed Iran’s most powerful military officer, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a leader of the Iran-backed militias in Iraq, of which Kataib Hezbollah is a member.

Kataib Hezbollah been designated a “foreign terrorist organization” by the State Department since 2009.

A truck with a make-shift rocket launch platform was found south of the area with three Katyusha rockets, according to the Iraq security media cell.

The rocket attack is reminiscent of the deadly Dec. 27, 2019, attack against the Iraqi Kirkuk military installation that resulted in the death of an American contractor.

The U.S. blamed an Iran-backed Shia militia known as Kata-ib Hezbollah, and launched retaliatory airstrikes against the group.

The incident nearly led to a broader conflict with Iran following a decapitation strike in early January that killed Iran Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.

Iran launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles targeting two Iraqi bases on Jan. 8 as retaliation for Soleimani’s death.

No U.S. troops were killed in the Iran ballistic missile strike but more than 100 troops have since been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury.

The U.S. has fingered Iran as responsible for dozens of rocket attacks targeting bases housing U.S. and coalition troops and has warned Tehran to halt the attacks.

This story contains information from the Associated Press. It is still developing. Stay with Military Times for updates.
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