DAWN.COM

Today's Paper | March 08, 2026

Updated 22 Apr, 2024 01:29pm

Rockets fired from Iraq at US-led coalition base in Syria

Rockets were fired late Sunday from northern Iraq at a military base in Syria housing a US-led coalition, according to Iraqi security forces, AFP reports.

The anti-jihadist coalition said one of its fighter jets in Iraq had “destroyed a launcher in self-defence after reports of a failed rocket attack” near a base in northeast Syria.

“No US personnel were injured,” it added in a brief statement to AFP.

It is the first major attack against the coalition forces in several weeks.

It comes days after Israel reportedly responded to an Iranian attack with a drone strike on the Islamic republic, amid tensions fuelled by the Gaza conflict.

The statement from the Iraqi security forces accused “outlaw elements ofhaving targetted a base of the international coalition with rockets in the heart of Syrian territory”, at around 9:50pm.

The security forces burned the vehicle involved in the attack, the statement added.

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.

He accused the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of Iran-backed groups, of staging the attack.

The group has claimed most of the attacks on US forces carried between mid-October and early February.

Following a series of rocket attacks and drone strikes by pro-Iran armed factions against US soldiers deployed in the Middle East over the winter, there had been several weeks of calm.

Read Comments

Govt decides in principle to implement work-from-home, distance learning for fuel conservation Next Story