Rockets hit Iraqi base housing US troops: report

A salvo of rockets hit an Iraqi base on Saturday outside Baghdad that houses American troops, Iraqi officials told The Associated Press.

Officials told the wire service that more than a dozen rockets landed near the base, Camp Taji, and that two Iraqi soldiers were wounded in the attack.

The strike comes days after Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq, attacked Camp Taji, killing two American troops as well as a British service member.

This prompted the U.S. to launch retaliatory airstrikes against five weapons storage facilities of the Iran-backed militia on Thursday.

Gen. Frank McKenzie, the U.S.’s top commander in the Middle East, said on Friday that the threat from Iran and its proxy militias remain high.

“I think tensions have actually not gone down,” McKenzie said. “I still think they are actively seeking ways to achieve destabilization that would allow them to escape the strictures of the maximum pressure campaign.”

There was no immediate response from coalition forces regarding the attack on Saturday, according to the AP.