Iraqi security sources and a US official said that at least five rockets were launched from the Iraqi town of Zummar toward a US military base in northeastern Syria on Sunday, according to Reuters.
The rocket attack comes just a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani returned from a visit to the United States, where he met with President Joe Biden at the White House.
A Telegram group affiliated with the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia claimed that armed factions in Iraq had decided to resume attacks after seeing little progress in talks to end the US-led military coalition’s presence in the country. But Sabreen News, another popular Telegram group Kataib Hezbollah, later said that the Iran-backed faction had not issued any official statements.
A tweet by Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, posted an hour before reports of the rocket attacks surfaced, has been read as a “green light” for further escalation. It translates to “Trust in God, and know that God’s promise to defend believers is inevitable and will not be broken.”
The US has downplayed the attack, with one unnamed official describing it as a “failed rocket attack.” While official sources have not verified this information, the source claims that no US personnel were injured. It was also unclear whether the rockets were intercepted or whether they failed to hit the base. It also remains unconfirmed if the base was itself the target.
Iraqi security forces and a senior army officer reported that a small truck with a rocket launcher fixed to its back had been parked in Zummar, a town on the border with Syria. The destroyed truck was seized for further investigation, with initial findings indicating it was targeted by an airstrike.
“Our security forces found the wheel from which the missiles were launched and burned it, and are still continuing the search operation to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to justice to receive their punishment,” the Iraqi Security Media Cell announced on Sunday.
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