Rockets were fired Sunday evening from northern Iraq into a military camp in Syria hosting the U.S.-led coalition, according to Iraqi security forces.
Responding Iraqi troops launched a major operation in northern Nineveh province, locating a vehicle used in the attack, they said in a statement.
It’s the first major attack against coalition forces in weeks.
This comes days after Israel was reported to have responded to an Iranian attack using drones in the Islamic Republic, amid heightened tensions fueled by the Gaza conflict.
The Iraqi security forces’ statement condemned “the heinous war by targeting the international coalition’s missile base in central Syria,” around 3:50 a.m.
Security forces destroyed the vehicle involved in the attack, the statement added.
Meanwhile, a Gaza official says the Israeli strike killed nine members of one family in Rafah.
Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said several missiles were fired “from Iraqi territory at the Kharab al-Jir camp” northeast Syria, where U.S. soldiers are stationed.
He blamed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of Iran-backed groups, for the attack.
The group has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks against U.S. forces between mid-October and early February.
Following a series of rocket attacks and drone strikes by Iran-backed groups against U.S. troops deployed in the Middle East during the harsh winter months, there have been several weeks of calm.
The Iraqi-based Islamic Resistance group said it stands in solidarity with Palestinians and is angered by America’s support for Israel in the Gaza conflict.
A January 28 drone attack killed three U.S. soldiers in the Jordanian desert on the Syria border.
In response, the U.S. targeted several sites in Syria and Iraq, hitting Iran-backed forces, and drawing criticism from both countries’ governments.
The U.S. has around 2,500 troops in Iraq and nearly 900 on the Syria border as part of the international coalition formed in 2014 to combat the Islamic State (IS) group.
