Andrew England & Felicia Schwartz
Seven US personnel were wounded in a rocket attack by Iran-backed militias on a base in Iraq, underscoring the threat to American forces amid intensified diplomatic efforts to ease 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.
Two rockets hit the air base at about 9pm local time on Monday, wounding five US soldiers and two American contractors, a US defence official said. Two were evacuated from Iraq for further treatment and all are in a stable condition, the official said.
Austin said a preliminary assessment showed that an Iranian-backed Shia militia was behind the attack, but the authorities were still working to identify the group.
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