BAGHDAD, 09 July 2021, (TON): US and Iraq officials said that US diplomats and troops in Iraq and Syria were targeted in three rocket and drone attacks in the past 24 hours, including at least 14 rockets hitting an Iraqi air base hosting US forces, wounding two American service members.

While there were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks, part of a wave targeting US troops or areas where they are based in Iraq and Syria, analysts believed they were part of a campaign by Iranian-backed militias.

Iraqi militia groups aligned with Iran vowed to retaliate after US strikes on the Iraqi-Syrian border killed four of their members last month.

Two people were slightly wounded in the rocket attack on the Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq, said coalition spokesman US Army Colonel Wayne Marotto. The rockets landed on the base and its perimeter. He said earlier that three people were wounded.

US officials said “the two personnel injured were US service members. One suffered a concussion and the other had minor cuts, one of the officials added.”

Two rockets were fired at the US Embassy inside Baghdad’s Green Zone, Iraqi security sources said.

The embassy’s anti-rocket system diverted one of the rockets, said one of the sources, a security official whose office is inside the Green Zone. The second rocket fell near the zone’s perimeter, security officials said.

Sirens blared from the embassy compound inside the zone, which houses government buildings and foreign missions.