Four members of Iraq’s military were wounded in a rocket attack targeting an airbase just north of Baghdad where American trainers are present, Iraqi security officials said on Sunday.
The attack, which included at least six rockets, came just days after Iran fired ballistic missiles at two bases in Iraq that house U.S. forces, causing no casualties.
The recently heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran were sparked last month when a rocket attack killed an American contractor at a base in Iraq. The U.S. has blamed Iran-backed militias for the attack and others.
Sunday’s attack wounded an Iraqi air force officer and three enlisted men, Iraqi security officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack as of yet.
The rockets struck the Balad airbase, which hosts American trainers, advisers and a company that provides maintenance services for F-16 aircraft. Some rockets fell on a restaurant inside the airbase, the officials said.
The base is located some 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Baghdad.
A statement from the Iraqi army’s official media office confirmed the attack but said eight rockets hit the base, and that two officers had been wounded. The difference in accounts could not immediately be reconciled.
“There are American experts, trainers and advisers at the base,” said one defense official, who requested anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media.
The U.S. and Iran recently stepped back from escalating tensions following the killing of Revolutionary Guards Corps Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top general, in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad. A senior Iraqi leader of an Iran-backed militia was also killed.
Iran’s retaliatory attack for Soleimani’s death hit two Iraqi bases, Ain al-Asad and Irbil, where American troops are based.
The limited Iranian strikes appeared to be mainly a show of force, and deescalated tensions that had threatened to turn Iraq into a proxy battlefield.