Several U.S. military personnel were injured in a missile attack Saturday night by Iranian-backed rebels on Al-Asad Airbase in Iraq, the Pentagon said.

At about 6:30 p.m. local time, multiple ballistic missiles and rockets were fired by Iranian-backed militants from western Iraq, U.S. Central Command said in a statement posted to social media.

The base’s air defense systems intercepted “most of the missiles,” but “others impacted the base,” CENTCOM reported.

Multiple U.S. personnel were being evaluated for traumatic brain injuries, CENTCOM said, and at least one Iraqi soldier was also wounded. No further details were immediately provided.

  • DominusOfMegadeus@sh.itjust.works
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    5 months ago

    I know this is complicated, but what is Iran’s end game here? Don’t they know if they keep poking the bear, they’re going to get demolished? They’re not stupid, whatever anyone may think of them in other regards. (I am against war, at all costs, and I wish everyone would just calm down and let people live their lives the way the see fit without fucking around with that same privilege for others, but that does not seem likely at this point.)

  • hark@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    What were those personnel doing in Iraq? Is the US never going to fully withdraw from Iraq?

    • Space_Racer@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      Support base for fighting ISIS. And for supporting Syrian Democratic Forces and Kurdish factions in Syria.

      • hark@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        And why are they doing that? Shouldn’t regional problems be left to the region? Something tells me the US wouldn’t take kindly to a foreign country setting up base in Mexico to take care of some problem in the region.

        • Space_Racer@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          Do you not remember when ISIS almost took over all of Iraq? How everyone in the region was desperately pleading for the U.S to do something about ISIS?

          Despite what Donald Trump said, ISIS is far from defeated. We also aren’t abandoning the Kurds. Without the United States in the region Turkey would be bombing them indiscriminately. The US is pretty much in the position of damned if you do damned if you don’t.

          The better position is to stay in a limited support role. There aren’t US forces openly clashing with combatants. They’re providing air support, local signals, intelligence and fire support.

          • hark@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Yeah, I remember when the US created the power vacuum for ISIS to take over. We can’t act as world police forever. We’re creating more problems than we’re solving.