Rockets fired from Iraq toward US base

MOSUL, Iraq — At least five rockets were launched from Iraq's town of Zummar toward a US military base in northeastern Syria on Sunday, two Iraqi security sources and a US official told Reuters.

The attack against US forces is the first since early February when Iranian-backed groups in Iraq stopped their attacks against US troops.

It comes a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani returned from a visit to the United States, where he met with US President Joe Biden at the White House.

Iraqi armed faction Kataib Hezbollah has denied issuing a statement saying it had resumed attacks on US forces, a statement from the group issued on the Telegram messaging app said.

Kataib Hezbollah described that as "fabricated news".

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said more than five rockets were fired from Iraq toward troops at a coalition base in Rumalyn, Syria, but no US personnel were injured.

The official referred to it as a "failed rocket attack". It was not immediately clear if the rockets had failed to hit the base or had been destroyed before they reached. It was also not clear if the base was the target.

Following that, the official said an aircraft from the US-led coalition in Iraq and Syria carried out a strike against the launcher.

Two security sources and a senior army officer in Iraq said a small truck with a rocket launcher fixed on the back had been parked in Zummar, a town on the border with Syria.

The attacks came after a huge blast at a military base in Iraq on Saturday killed a member of an Iraqi security force that includes Iran-backed groups. The force commander said it was an attack, while the army said it was investigating and there were no warplanes in the sky at the time.

In a separate development, Iran's supreme leader on Sunday dismissed any discussion of whether Teheran's drone-and-missile attack on Israel earlier this month hit anything there.

Iran launched drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles that sought to overwhelm Israel's air defenses in the April 13 attack.

"Debates by the other party about how many missiles were fired, how many of them hit the target and how many didn't, these are of secondary importance," Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said.

"The main issue is the emergence of the Iranian nation and Iranian military's will in an important international arena."

Analysts believe both Iran and Israel, regional archrivals locked in a shadow conflict for years, are trying to dial back tensions following a series of attacks.

Agencies via Xinhua