Several US troops were wounded in a suspected rocket attack by Iran-backed militias on a base in Iraq, underscoring the threat to American forces amid intensified diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions between Iran and Israel.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said the attack on Ain al-Assad, the main base hosting American forces in Iraq, “marked a dangerous escalation and demonstrated Iran’s destabilising role in the region”, according to a Pentagon readout of a call with his Israeli counterpart.
The assault on Monday was the first time in months that American troops in Iraq have been wounded, and followed a US strike against Iran-backed Iraqi militias last week. The Ain al-Assad attack took place as Washington and its Arab allies sought to reduce soaring regional tensions in the wake of the back-to-back assassinations of senior leaders of the Lebanese militant movement Hizbollah and Hamas last week.