Iranian-Backed Group Launches Ballistic Missiles at Iraq Airbase, Injuring US Personnel

The headquarters of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) paramilitaries in Baghdad on Jan. 4, 2024. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran-backed fighters in western Iraq attacked international coalition forces with a barrage of ballistic missiles and rockets at Iraq’s al-Assad airbase on Jan. 19, causing injuries to Iraqi and U.S. personnel.

While many of the missiles were intercepted by the major airbase’s air defense systems, others hit their target, officials at U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said.

“Damage assessments are ongoing,” CENTCOM said in a statement. “A number of U.S. personnel are undergoing evaluation for traumatic brain injuries. At least one Iraqi service member was wounded.”

The airbase, which is considered the westerly equivalent of Baghdad’s Green Zone, previously came under attack by a ballistic missile on Nov. 20, 2023, marking a major escalation with the use of the more destructive ballistic missiles, which left eight personnel wounded. The United States responded with a retaliatory strike, killing several Iranian-backed militia members.

The base also was the scene of a major attack on Jan. 8, 2020, by an estimated 30 Iranian ballistic missiles.

At the time, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility, saying the action was in response to the U.S. drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani—leader of the IRGC’s Quds Force, the Iranian regime’s foreign military arm—a few days earlier. The targeted hit was in response to Soleimani “actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region,” U.S. President Donald Trump and the Pentagon said at the time.

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After that, the Pentagon installed Patriot air defense systems at the base.

According to initial reports, the Jan. 19 attack included about 15 rockets, of which 13 were successfully intercepted. However, two hit the base.

An Iran-linked group that calls itself the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” released a statement on Jan. 19 claiming responsibility.

IRGC Spy Chief for Syria Killed

Earlier on Jan. 19, Tehran stated that an Israeli strike on a multistory residential building had killed the IRGC’s spy chief for Syria Brig. Gen. Sadegh Omidzadeh, his deputy, and three other IRGC members in the Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, where the local United Nations headquarters and foreign embassies are located. State media affiliated with the IRGC also identified Ali Aghazadeh, Hossein Mohammadi, and Saeed Karimi as advisers killed in the attack.

According to reports, the Syrian Defense Ministry reported additional civilian casualties at the residential complex, whom the director of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights described to Agence France-Presse as “Iran-aligned leaders.” The leaders were allegedly gathered for a meeting at the IRGC-owned building in a neighborhood known by locals as a high-security zone for IRGC leaders and pro-Iran Palestinian factions.

Tehran threatened reprisals, with state media reporting that Iran’s Foreign Ministry returned blame to Israel for a “desperate attempt to spread instability in the region” as both regional powers continue to fight for influence.

U.S. and coalition forces in the region have been facing renewed attacks from Iranian proxies in the region since mid-October 2023 following the Hamas terrorist group’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The Pentagon stated that dozens of U.S. personnel have been wounded in the ongoing attacks, which have exceeded 100 in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 7, 2023.

On several occasions, the Pentagon has launched strikes that it stated were to prevent imminent attacks or for deterrence measures. Iranian proxies are involved in a strategic game of expelling U.S. forces from the region, Pentagon press secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said on Dec. 12, 2023.

Israel Continues Offensive to Neutralize Hamas

In recent months, Israel has intensified its strikes on senior Iranian and allied figures in Syria and Lebanon, where Iran-backed Hezbollah is operating, as its military operation to wipe out Hamas’s military capabilities continues.

In December 2023, Israel killed senior Iranian Gen. Razi Moussavi, leader of the IRGC’s Quds Force in Syria, in an airstrike. Moussavi was a close companion of Soleimani.

On Jan. 2, Israel was blamed for a strike in Lebanon that killed Hamas deputy Saleh al-Arouri. This was followed by a lethal strike on top Hezbollah commander Wissam Tawil in his car in south Lebanon.

On Jan. 16, the Pentagon stated that it had seized a boatload of “advanced conventional weapons” over the weekend that Iran was sending to the Houthis, who have been attacking international vessels in the Red Sea from Yemen to call for an end to Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

Currently, there are roughly 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq and some 900 in Syria.

The U.S. officially withdrew its presence from the base as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2011, only to return in 2014 as part of the international coalition alongside Iraqi forces against the ISIS terrorist group after it seized large parts of the country before being defeated.