A rocket was fired at Iraq’s Ain al-Assad Air Base on Wednesday, causing no casualties or damage, the US military’s joint Middle East command, CENTCOM (Central Command), announced.

According to its statement, the American forces at this base identified the point from which the missile was launched and informed the Iraqi security forces, who then proceeded to seize a truck in which a launcher for “five 122 mm rockets” was installed.

The attack came on the day US diplomat Victoria Nuland visited Baghdad and said Washington preferred “cooperation” with the Iraqi government to stop repeated attacks on US troops deployed in that country and in Syria.

Amid concerns of a regional flare-up over the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas, more than 100 rocket or drone attacks have been launched against US and international anti-jihadist coalition forces in Iraqi and Syrian territory since mid-October.

The responsibility for most of them was claimed by the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq”, a nebula of fighters considered to belong to pro-Iranian armed groups, components of the Hasd al-Shaabi (“Popular Mobilization Units”), an alliance officially integrated into the Iraqi regular forces.

After her contacts mainly with the Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Zia al-Sudani, Mrs. Nuland said that the attacks “are not only aimed at the US”, as “we are invited here, we do not have our own facilities”, so “the attacks are against Iraqis facilities and pose a risk to Iraqi national sovereignty.”

“We had a good discussion (…) about intensifying our cooperation to end these attacks: not only in Iraq, but also from Iraq against interests in Syria, and how we can do it together,” added the deputy ‘ number two of American diplomacy.

He insisted that Washington’s “preference”, shared by the authorities in Baghdad, is for “Iraq”, for “Iraqi security forces” to take on “dealing with this security threat”.

The US Pentagon has launched strikes against pro-Iranian militant groups in Iraq, as well as facilities it says were linked to Iran in Syria, in retaliation for actions against its forces.

In total, Washington counts at least 103 attacks in Iraq and Syria since October 17, i.e. ten days after the outbreak of the Israel/Hamas war.

On December 8, rocket barrages targeted the US embassy in Baghdad for the first time since the current escalation began, but no injuries were reported.

Iraqi authorities quickly announced arrests, also saying that some of the alleged attackers have “connections with certain security services”.

Washington maintains around 900 troops deployed in Syria and another nearly 2,500 in Iraq as part of the operation against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group by an international coalition formed in 2014.