Militants close to Iran fired ballistic missiles at a base where US troops are stationed in Iraq on Saturday, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff for the Middle East (CENTCOM) said, citing a Iraqi soldier injured and possible injuries to US military personnel.

“At approximately 6:30 p.m. (Baghdad time; 5:30 p.m. GST) on January 20, ballistic missiles and rockets were fired by Iranian-backed fighters against Al-Assad Air Base in western Iraq,” CENTCOM said via X (of the former Twitter).

He added that “at least one Iraqi soldier was injured” and that US soldiers were being examined for concussions or brain injuries.

According to the same source, “most” of the missiles were intercepted and destroyed by air defense systems.

Earlier, an Iraqi police officer and a US military officer said about ten rockets were fired yesterday in western Iraq against the Ain al-Assad base, which hosts troops from the US and other countries of the international anti-jihadist coalition.

The “Islamic Resistance in Iraq”, as they call themselves fighters of armed groups close to Iran, who have launched dozens of attacks against the international anti-jihadist coalition since mid-October, claimed responsibility in a statement.

Responsibility for most of these actions was claimed by the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” and Washington carried out repeated retaliatory strikes. The US maintains around 900 troops deployed in Syria and nearly 2,500 more in Iraq as part of operations against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group by an international coalition they formed in 2014.

Yesterday’s attack comes against the background of the explosive situation in the region due to the war between Israel, whose main ally is the US, and Hamas, which is supported by Iran.

Yesterday, five members of the Revolutionary Guards, an elite body of the Iranian army, were killed in a strike in Damascus that Tehran attributed to Israel, threatening to retaliate.

On the night of Monday to Tuesday, Iran launched ballistic missiles against the autonomous region of Kurdistan, in northern Iraq, emphasizing that it targeted a facility used by “spies of the Zionist regime” (according to the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad).

Between Oct. 17 and Jan. 17, at least 140 drone, rocket and short-range ballistic missile attacks were launched against coalition forces in Iraqi and Syrian territory, according to a US Defense Department spokesman.