New Drone Attack Targets US Forces In Iraq

Baghdad, May 8 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th May, 2021 ) :A drone packed with explosives hit an Iraqi base housing US troops early Saturday causing damage but no casualties, the Iraqi military and the US-led coalition said.

The attack on the Ain Al-Asad air base was the fourth targeting US troops in Iraq in less than a week, as an armed campaign blamed on pro-Iranian groups intensifies.

"Each attack... undermines the authority of Iraqi institutions, the rule of law and Iraqi national sovereignty," said coalition spokesman Colonel Wayne Marotto.

"No injuries reported. A hangar was damaged," he said in a tweet.

It was only the second time authorities publicly confirmed a drone had been used in an attack on a target inside Iraq.

In April, a drone packed with explosives hit the coalition's Iraq headquarters in the military part of the airport in the Kurdish regional capital Arbil.

The attack sent shock waves around Iraq -- the tactic poses a headache for the coalition, as drones can evade the C-RAM air defences it has installed to protect its bases.

But an Iraqi government official told AFP that the Arbil strike was not the first use of a drone against a target inside Iraq.