The US military said it did not carry out an air strike on a rocket launcher on Monday near Ainal-Asad air base in western Iraq, which hosts US and other international forces, a US military official said on Thursday.
“The vehicle-mounted rocket launcher, which was reportedly found approximately 7km east of Al-Asad Airbase, Iraq, was not destroyed as a result of a US air strike,” the US military official told Reuters.
Two Iraqi army officials told Reuters on Tuesday that a US air strike on a rocket launcher late on Monday foiled an attack on Ain al-Asad air base.
The US military official said, “any damage to the launcher could have been the result of a malfunction or misfire.”
Since October 17, the US and Coalition forces have been attacked at least 130 times in Iraq and Syria, a US military official said.
As of Thursday, there had been 53 attacks in Iraq and 77 in Syria, usually with a mix of one-way attack drones, rockets, mortars, and close-range ballistic missiles, the official added.
Iran-aligned militia groups in Iraq and Syria oppose Israel’s campaign in Gaza and hold the US partly responsible.
