Three U.S. troops wounded in renewed rocket attacks on Iraq's Taji base

[rooster59]

Three U.S. troops wounded in renewed rocket attacks on Iraq's Taji base

By Ahmed Rasheed, Ahmed Aboulenein and Phil Stewart

 

Iraqi security forces walk near a building where they found unused Katyusha rockets in Umm al-Izam, in this picture provided by Iraqi Media Security Cell, March 14, 2020. Iraqi Media Security Cell/Handout via REUTERS

 

BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three American troops and several Iraqi forces were wounded on Saturday in the second major rocket attack in the past week on an Iraqi base north of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi officials said, raising the stakes in an escalating cycle of attacks and reprisals.

 

Iraq's Joint Operations Command said 33 Katyusha rockets were launched near a section of the Taji base which houses U.S.-led coalition troops. It said the military found seven rocket launchers and 24 unused rockets in the nearby Abu Izam area.

 

The Iraqi military said several Iraqi air defence servicemen were critically wounded. Two of the three wounded U.S. troops are seriously injured and are being treated at a military hospital in Baghdad, the Pentagon said.

 

Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman declined to speculate on potential U.S. responses but, in a statement, cited Defense Secretary Mark Esper's warning last week: "You cannot attack and wound American Service Members and get away with it, we will hold them to account."

 

The rocket attacks came less than two days after the United States launched retaliatory air strikes at facilities in Iraq that the Pentagon linked to the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia, which it blamed for Wednesday's attack on Taji.

 

The retaliatory strikes were meant to deter militia from staging any more rocket attacks.

 

Not only did the retaliatory strikes appear to fail to stem more attacks on the U.S.-led coalition, Iraq protested the U.S. air strikes and said members of its security forces were among the dead.

 

The official Iraqi casualty figures showed three Iraqi soldiers, two policemen, one civilian and no militiamen were killed in the U.S. strikes, which Baghdad condemned as a violation of its sovereignty and targeted aggression against its regular armed forces.

 

The Iraqi military said on Saturday that neither the United States nor other foreign forces should use the latest attack as a pretext to take military action without Iraq's approval, and should instead hasten to implement a parliamentary resolution expelling them.

 

The Pentagon said Iraqi security forces had made an initial arrest and added the United States was assisting with the investigation into the attack.

 

Longstanding antagonism between the United States and Iran has mostly played out on Iraqi soil in recent months.

 

Iranian-backed paramilitary groups have regularly rocketed and shelled bases in Iraq which host U.S. forces and the area around the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

 

The United States has in turn conducted several strikes inside Iraq, killing top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and Kataib Hezbollah founder Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in January.

 

Many Iraqis say it is they who suffer most from U.S.-Iranian tensions and some, including caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, have called for U.S. troops to withdraw. Parliament voted to expel foreign troops in January.

 

(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed and Phil Stewart; additional reporting by Idrees Ali, Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein and Phil Stewart; Editing by James Drummond, Daniel Wallis and Chizu Nomiyama)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-03-15

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[Crazy Alex]

Get us the <deleted> out of Iraq.

[Nyezhov]

50 minutes ago, Crazy Alex said:

Get us the <deleted> out of Iraq.

After the F35s flatten the Terrs and the Iranians. Nows the time to give them a beating, while the Iranian home front is virus ridden.

 

 

[Rimmer]

Troll post removed

[Rimmer]

Baiting flame removed

[Cryingdick]

46 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

After the F35s flatten the Terrs and the Iranians. Nows the time to give them a beating, while the Iranian home front is virus ridden.

 

 

 

Look at the price of oil. It's probably about time to end Iran.

[Sujo]

20 minutes ago, Cryingdick said:

Support whoever you want to. Try to fight a war with $30 oil. It's a free world and as such you can support anybody you wish to. However just stop crying when you lose.

 

Wait for the oil tariffs. 

Yep, the US hasnt won a war for a long time. Perhaps stop starting things they never win.

[Nyezhov]

3 minutes ago, Victornoir said:

At home we say US go home.

 

No problem. What country you from? You can go your own waaaaaaay (go your own waay ay ay).

 

5 minutes ago, Victornoir said:

As for losing or winning, our countries have lived for centuries before US and did not need anyone to maintain their sovereignty.

Then why do you alwys call upon us to bail you out?

[Sujo]

19 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

No problem. What country you from? You can go your own waaaaaaay (go your own waay ay ay).

 

Then why do you alwys call upon us to bail you out?

Well thats not true. US has asked for help in their wars. Australia has a policy to only go if requested. 

 

You can thank us anytime for always going to assist in your wars. perhaps also thank nz. You know, part of the anzus treaty.

 

Maybe US should stop asking for help.

Edited March 15, 2020 by Sujo

[DaddyWarbucks]

Declare victory and pull out of the greater Middle East now.

Oil and Israel aren't worth the price that this bloody mess has cost the USA.

[Srikcir]

Trump is turning Iraq into another Vietnam conflict. However, now in a region where major pro-Iranian military have isolated the US to small outposts in Syria protecting oil rigs, a Kurdish base and an Iraq base. Trump has put the US military into a hostage situation where even the Iraq government views US military presence as a liability and wants the US gone.

[Bluespunk]

1 hour ago, DaddyWarbucks said:

Declare victory and pull out of the greater Middle East now.

Oil and Israel aren't worth the price that this bloody mess has cost the USA.

Cost the USA?

 

Its the USA that has endured near two decades of war, the ravages and atrocities of IS and the destruction of their country because of an invasion launched on lies and false data?

 

Here’s me thinking it was Iraq that suffered all this. 
 

Live and learn, live and learn...

[metisdead]

A post in which the quoted content had been changed into a foreign language has been removed as well as a reply. 

[jany123]

2 to 3 months after solemenis murder, a time when all the trumps were crowed about making the world a safer place for Americans, and now yet more Americans are dead (not to mention the toll on those allied to American forces)

 

So.... do yall still feel it to be a safer world?

[Salerno]

2 hours ago, Srikcir said:

Trump is turning Iraq into another Vietnam conflict.

As much as I think he's a <deleted> don't think you can pin this one on him.

[Nyezhov]

1 hour ago, jany123 said:

o.... do yall still feel it to be a safer world?

yes.

[WalkingOrders]

9 hours ago, Sujo said:

Yep, the US hasnt won a war for a long time. Perhaps stop starting things they never win.

All for a complete total withdrawal. Middle East, Europe, dissolution of NATO, pivot of total defense posture to Naval power and fast react looking East.  Nationalism, yet with powerful response if necessary, what was your last war?

[Crazy Alex]

7 hours ago, Srikcir said:

Trump is turning Iraq into another Vietnam conflict. However, now in a region where major pro-Iranian military have isolated the US to small outposts in Syria protecting oil rigs, a Kurdish base and an Iraq base. Trump has put the US military into a hostage situation where even the Iraq government views US military presence as a liability and wants the US gone.

Yes, because the 19-year war (or wars, if you go by Obama claiming to have ended it, only to get us into war there yet again) in Iraq was going so well until Trump came to office. Seriously, bro?

Edited March 15, 2020 by Crazy Alex
clarification

[WalkingOrders]

16 minutes ago, Crazy Alex said:

Yes, because the 19-year war (or wars, if you go by Obama claiming to have ended it, only to get us into war there yet again) in Iraq was going so well until Trump came to office. Seriously, bro?

The concept of Trump being a Nationalist, favoring withdrawal from international intanglements, despite fierce opposition from neocon/neolib consensus of both parties, seems to be lost on the anti Trump crowd so enamoured with the Democrat party, and their neo con kinfolk in the GOP. Very poor student's of American politics I think.

 

I would have thought they would have grasped such subtlety by now, and jumped, at Trumps disdain for Europe gleefully to get rid of us from Europe. Alas, they hate him so, despite his being the first President to lean toward total European withdrawal.

 

Perhaps, they are unaware of the push back Trump receives if he even mentions the word withdrawal! From, anywhere!

 

[WalkingOrders]

10 hours ago, Victornoir said:

At home we say US go home.

It was valid in Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Aphganistan, Libya and I certainly forget some.
It has also been said for Europe since the fall of the wall and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. Not only the man in the street, eh, but also certain leaders in office.

At last we all shout "US go home" in Iraq with interventions based on shameless lies and the endless chaos they brought with them to this region.

As for losing or winning, our countries have lived for centuries before US and did not need anyone to maintain their sovereignty.

All for withdraw from entire middle east, and Europe. Also from South Korea, and even Japan, however, the USA withdrawing from both those countries would result in immediate declarations of nuclear weapons capability by both of them, and NK as well. Yeah, all for going home...... Build your Navy!

[WalkingOrders]

10 hours ago, Sujo said:

Well thats not true. US has asked for help in their wars. Australia has a policy to only go if requested. 

 

You can thank us anytime for always going to assist in your wars. perhaps also thank nz. You know, part of the anzus treaty.

 

Maybe US should stop asking for help.

No, NZ is partially suspended from AnZuz. See refusing US ships ports potentially carrying Nuclear weapons. Further, I favor ending the treaty, and letting Australia decide if they favour a new treaty. Perhaps they are feeling closer to China? As for NZ, let them likewise decide later.

 

You're right the USA should not ask for help, or expect any!

 

The USA has no allies, as far as I am concerned, until, and if new treaties are struck by nations who are sure they wish to be in them.

 

China is rising. No time for uncertainty!

[WalkingOrders]

9 hours ago, DaddyWarbucks said:

Declare victory and pull out of the greater Middle East now.

Oil and Israel aren't worth the price that this bloody mess has cost the USA.

There is no victory, and Israel can take care herself. The caveat, is making clear zero tolerance on aggression against US Interests or regional partners. Time to get out!

[ChouDoufu]

12 hours ago, Nyezhov said:

After the F35s flatten the Terrs and the Iranians. Nows the time to give them a beating, while the Iranian home front is virus ridden.

 

 

why? 

 

no evidence the iranians were involved.  we're blaming "iran-backed militias" with no evidence.  like last time, they found a pickup in a sunni area where sunni extremists had attacked the base before, and where shia groups would have difficulty operating. 

 

regardless, the shia militias are part of the iraqi military, and are not iranian.  they get moral and financial support at times, but they are independent actors, not iranian stooges.

 

ah, but it fits the narrative.

[from the home of CC]

On 3/15/2020 at 9:19 AM, Cryingdick said:

 

Look at the price of oil. It's probably about time to end Iran.

actually, I'd like to see Iran decimate Saudi..

Edited March 16, 2020 by from the home of CC

[Nyezhov]

20 hours ago, WalkingOrders said:

All for a complete total withdrawal. Middle East, Europe, dissolution of NATO, pivot of total defense posture to Naval power and fast react looking East.  Nationalism, yet with powerful response if necessary, what was your last war?

America first.

 

And this time, when they come begging, say hey dude, fix it yourself.