Attacks target bases hosting US forces in Iraq, Syria

US diplomats and troops in Iraq and Syria were targeted in three rocket and drone attacks in the past 24 hours, US and Iraq officials said on Wednesday, including at least 14 rockets hitting an Iraqi air base hosting US forces, wounding two American service members. Iraqi militia groups aligned with Iran vowed to retaliate after US strikes on the Iraqi-Syrian border killed four of their members last month. Two people were slightly wounded in the rocket attack on the Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq, said coalition spokesman US Army Colonel Wayne Marotto. The rockets landed on the base and its perimeter. He said earlier that three people were wounded. Two rockets were fired at the US Embassy inside Baghdad's Green Zone early on Thursday, Iraqi security sources told Reuters. The embassy's anti-rocket system diverted one of the rockets. The second rocket fell near the zone's perimeter, security officials said.

In Syria, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said no damage was done by a drone attack on the Al Omar oil field in an eastern area bordering Iraq where US forces came under rocket fire but escaped injury on June 28. The Pentagon said a drone had been brought down in eastern Syria and that no US service members had been injured and there had not been any damage. Iraqi army officials said the pace of recent attacks against bases hosting US forces with rockets and explosive-laden drones was unprecedented. Iraqi military sources said a rocket launcher fixed on the back of a truck was used in Wednesday's attack and was found on nearby farmland set on fire.