Rockets hit Iraq’s Taji base for second time in a week

<p style="text-align: left;">Several Iraqi air defense servicemen were critically wounded on Saturday, March 14, as multiple rockets hit a military base which houses US-led coalition troops, in the second such strike in a week, the Iraqi military said.

The US-led coalition said three of its troops and two Iraqi soldiers were wounded in the attack, according to Reuters.

Iraq&rsquo;s Joint Operations Command said 33 Katyusha rockets were launched near a section of the Taji base which houses coalition troops. It said the military found seven rocket launchers and 24 unused rockets in the nearby Abu Izam area.

The military said it would arrest those responsible, Reuters reported.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack which, unlike recent similar attacks, took place in daylight hours.

An Iraqi colonel inside the base had earlier told Reuters he heard rockets hit the site and sirens blaring.

A similar rocket attack on Wednesday on Taji, 20 km north of Baghdad, killed two US troops and a British soldier, prompting Washington to launch retaliatory air strikes on Thursday which killed six Iraqis.

The United States blamed the Kataib Hezbollah Iraqi militia for Wednesday&rsquo;s attack and said its air strikes targeted the group. But the official Iraqi casualty figures showed three Iraqi soldiers, two policemen, one civilian and no militiamen were killed.

The Iraqi military said on Saturday that neither the United States nor other foreign forces should use the latest attack as a pretext to take military action without Iraq&rsquo;s approval, and should instead hasten to implement a parliamentary resolution expelling them.

Iraq condemned the US air strikes on Friday, saying they were a violation of its sovereignty and targeted aggression against its regular armed forces.

Reporter&rsquo;s code: 50101

News Code 97593

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