Rockets kill 3 foreign soldiers in Iraqi base

BAGHDAD－Three soldiers－two from the United States and one from the United Kingdom－were killed on Wednesday, a US official said, in the deadliest rocket attack in years on an Iraqi military base hosting foreign troops.

The attack threatens a dangerous escalation, with suspected US-led coalition airstrikes promptly targeting Iran-backed Iraqi fighters in neighboring Syria, a war monitor said. At least 18 fighters were reported killed.

On Wednesday evening, a volley of 18 rockets hit the Taji air base north of Baghdad, which hosts foreign troops from the US-led coalition helping local forces battle extremists.

A coalition statement said three of its personnel were killed and a further 12 were wounded but it did not provide nationalities.

A US official, however, confirmed the dead comprised two US citizens and a British national.

Fearing an even bloodier flare-up this time, Iraqi officials and the United Nations were quick to condemn the deaths.

Iraq's military command said it was "a serious security challenge" and pledged to open a probe.

Iraqi President Barham Saleh and Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbussi condemned a "terrorist attack" which targeted "Iraq and its security".

The UN mission in Iraq called for "maximum restraint on all sides".

The Iraqi military said the rockets were fired from the back of a truck.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also condemned the attack in a telephone call.

The two "underscored that those responsible for the attacks must be held accountable", the US State Department said in a statement.

While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, Washington has blamed Iran-backed factions from Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi military network, which is incorporated into the Iraqi state, for recent similar violence.

Within hours of Wednesday's attack, three warplanes likely belonging to the US-led coalition bombed Hashed factions stationed on the Syrian side of the border with Iraq, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

At least 18 Iraqi fighters were killed as "10 explosions shook the area near Albukamal", a Syrian border town with a heavy Hashed presence, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

Hashed factions have fought alongside Syrian government forces for several years and have been targeted by both coalition and Israeli airstrikes in Syria.

Wednesday's attack on the Taji air base was the 22nd on US installations in Iraq, including the US embassy, since late October.

In one of the earlier attacks in late December, a spree of rockets killed a US contractor working at a base in northern Iraq.

That killing sent tensions spiraling. Two days later, the US responded by bombing Kataeb Hezbollah, a faction within the Hashed that is heavily backed by Iran and which Washington has blamed for several rocket attacks.

At least 25 Kataeb Hezbollah fighters were killed and their supporters on Dec 31 besieged the US embassy in Baghdad.

Tit-for-tat

A US drone strike outside Baghdad's airport on Jan 3 killed powerful Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani and the Hashed's deputy chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

Iran then retaliated by launching a volley of missiles at the western Iraqi base of Ain Al-Asad. No personnel were killed in that attack.

The tit-for-tat attacks on Iraqi soil left Baghdad furious, and in January its parliament voted to expel all foreign soldiers from Iraq in reaction to the killing of Soleimani.

Among them are nearly 5,200 US forces stationed across Iraq as part of the international coalition－comprising dozens of countries－formed in 2014 to confront the Islamic State group, which took swathes of territory that year.

Meanwhile, the US House of Representatives passed legislation on Wednesday to limit President Donald Trump's ability to wage war against Iran, amid continuing concern about a broader conflict after the strike that killed Soleimani.

The House voted 227 to 186 in favor of the war powers resolution, the latest effort by Congress to wrest back from the president its constitutionally guaranteed authority to declare war. Almost every Democrat voted in favor of the resolution. Just six of Trump's fellow Republicans supported it.