Several rocket strikes again targeted the Taji military base, north of Baghdad, on Saturday March 14, where two American soldiers and a British soldier were killed on Wednesday March 11 in a similar attack, Iraqi security sources said. and American. According to the Iraqi army, two Iraqi aviation personnel were injured. It is very rare for such attacks, like the one on Saturday, to occur in broad daylight.
Twenty-three rocket attacks have targeted American interests in Iraq since late October, while pro-Iranian armed factions regularly call for the Americans to be kicked out of the country. No rocket attack has ever been claimed, but Washington accuses the Shiite Islamist armed group of the Hezbollah Brigades (Kataeb Hezbollah), one of the country's most radical pro-Iran factions, of being behind the gunfire.
The Iraqi authorities, who are relying on the troops of the international coalition led by the United States to fight the clandestine jihadist cells on their soil, assure, they, fail to find the perpetrators of the shootings.
American retaliation
For the first time on Thursday, Hezbollah Brigades welcomed – but did not claim – the firing of eighteen rockets which had killed two American soldiers and a British soldier the day before. They had once again denounced "The American occupation forces".
During the night of Thursday to Friday, American reprisal strikes took place, targeting Washington according to Hezbollah Brigade bases. They killed six Iraqis, including five police and soldiers and one civilian, according to the Iraqi army.
This cycle of violence is once again raising the specter of a dangerous escalation in Iraq. At the end of last year, rocket fire that killed an American degenerated and led to the assassination in January by Washington of Iranian general Ghassem Soleimani and his lieutenant in Baghdad, as well as Iranian missile fire at a base housing Americans in Iraq.
Baghdad strongly denounced the American strikes, summoned the American ambassador and announced that he would file a complaint with the United Nations (UN), while Washington accuses Tehran and Baghdad of failing to control the attacks of armed factions which are now integrated into the state after fighting the jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group.
