At least five rockets were fired from the town of Zummar in Iraq towards a US military base in northeastern Syria on Sunday, according to two Iraqi security sources.
The last time Iranian-backed groups in Iraq attacked US troops was in early February. This recent attack is the first one since then.
The attack happened one day after the Iraqi Prime Minister came back from visiting the United States and meeting with the US President at the White House.
Two people who work in security and a senior army officer said that a small truck with a rocket launcher on it was left in Zummar, a town near the border with Syria.
The army person said that the truck caught on fire and exploded because there were rockets inside. At the same time, there were warplanes flying in the sky.
A military official, who didn’t want to be named because of how serious the incident is, said that we can’t be sure if US warplanes bombed the truck unless we check it.
Iraqi police went to the area and started looking for the people who did the crime. The criminals ran away in a different car. This was said by a security officer in Zummar town.
The Iraqi Security Media Cell, a group in charge of sharing security information, said that Iraqi forces have started a big operation to find and check the people responsible for a crime near the Syrian border. They promise to make sure those responsible are punished.
A soldier said they took the truck to look at it some more. A first look shows that it was destroyed by a bomb dropped from a plane.
“We are talking to the coalition forces in Iraq to give them information about this attack,” the officer said.
The attacks happened the day after a big explosion at a military base in Iraq. The explosion killed a member of the Iraqi security force, which includes groups supported by Iran. The leader of the army said there was an attack, but the army is still looking into it. They also said there were no planes flying at the time.
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Five missiles launched from Iraq into Syrian American military facility
