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A huge rocket attack on Ain al-Assad base in Iraq wounded ‘several’ American soldiers on Monday, officials said, just a day after Antony Blinken made chilling predictions of an Iranian counterattack on Israel.
The base in the west of the country was targeted by two Soviet-made Katyusha rockets amid soaring tensions in the Middle East – with Iran threatening to strike Israel as early as tonight.
The rocket fire is the latest in a series of attacks targeting the base in western Iraq, which hosts American troops as well as personnel from the US-led coalition against the Islamic State jihadist group.
Israel has been braced for an Iranian assault on five fronts ‘at any moment’ in revenge following the assassination Wednesday of Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Tehran a day after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, a senior military commander from the Lebanese group Hezbollah.
The White House Press Office and Joe Biden’s own social media accounts said that the president and Kamala Harris have been briefed by national security advisors on the attack.
‘They discussed the steps we are taking to defend our forces and respond to any attack against our personnel in a manner and place of our choosing,’ a spokesperson said.
The Department of Defense also confirmed the severity of the attack.
‘There was a suspected rocket attack today against US and coalition forces’ at the base, a US defense spokesperson said. ‘Initial indications are that several US personnel were injured.’
‘Base personnel are conducting a post-attack damage assessment’ and updates will be provided as more information becomes available, the spokesperson added.
An Iraqi military source had earlier said that multiple rockets were fired at base, with some landing inside it and another hitting nearby village but not causing damage.
A commander in a pro-Iran armed group told AFP that at least two rockets targeted the base, without saying who had carried out the attack.
Another source in the group and a security source confirmed an attack occurred.
Such attacks were frequent early in the war between Israel and Hamas Palestinian militants in Gaza but since then have largely halted.
The latest rocket fire comes as fears grow of an attack by Iran and its allies on Israel in retaliation for the killing of top Hamas and Hezbollah figures in strikes last weeks either blamed on or claimed by Israel.
Joe Biden was already scheduled to meet with his national security team in the Situation Room today as the lame-duck president seeks to soothe blistering tensions between Israel and Iran after the Jewish state assassinated Hamas leaders in Tehran and Beirut, Lebanon, last week.
The Islamic Republic could attack Israel in the next 24 to 48 hours following a major attack by Hezbollah that left two IDF soldiers injured, top western diplomats have warned.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the G7 yesterday that an attack in response to Israel’s killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut was imminent, Axios reported.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III reportedly spoke to his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant on Sunday to assure the Jewish state of U.S. support.
It would mark the second time during the growing crisis in the Middle East that Iran has directly attacked Israel, the first being in April when it sent a salvo of missiles and drones overnight.
Iran has clearly signaled that it intends to attack its foe, claiming it has the ‘legal right’ to respond to Haniyeh’s assassination. Foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani told a news conference: ‘No one has the right to doubt Iran’s legal right to punish the Zionist regime.’
The head of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, General Hossein Salami, also threatened Israel, warning that the state was ‘digging its own grave’ by carrying on its war against the terror group Hamas.
‘They will see the result of their mistake. They will see when, how and where they will get their response,’ Salami said during a speech.
The threat from Iran comes just hours after Hezbollah, backed by the Iranian regime, launched a silo of 30 missiles from Lebanon towards upper Galilee.
The escalating tensions between Israel, Hezbollah and Iran have led to growing fears of an all-out war breaking out in the Middle East between Israel and Tehran’s proxies.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his nation is already in a ‘multi-front war’ with Iran, adding during a Cabinet meeting on Sunday that Israel is prepared for any scenario.
Netanyahu has also been accused of not being ‘sincerely interested in a ceasefire’, as Hamas’ Haniyeh was the terror group’s lead ceasefire negotiator.
The U.S. said on the G7 call on Sunday that its choice to increase its military capability in the region was to bolster defense.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for its unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has left at least 39,583 people dead in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.