Drones attack US-led base in Iraq two years after general’s killing

A coalition base outside Baghdad airport was attacked by armed drones this morning, one of a series of incidents timed to coincide with the anniversary of the assassination of Iran’s leading general.

The two drones were shot down by a US air defence system at the airport. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Iranian-backed militias have carried out a series of rocket and drone attacks on bases shared between the US-led coalition and Iraqi government troops in recent years.

Today marks two years since a drone strike ordered by President Trump killed General Qasem Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s Quds Force, just outside the airport. Soleimani, 62, was in a car that had picked him up from a flight from Damascus. Killed alongside him was Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis, the military leader of the network of Shia militias backed by Iran inside Iraq.

The combined coalition-Iraqi base at Baghdad airport has regularly suffered such attacks. On this occasion, what officials described as fixed-wing suicide drones were shot down by the US C-Ram antimissile system installed at the base.

A photograph showed the remains of one of the missiles, marked in Arabic with the words “revenge operation for the commanders” and “Soleimani’s revenge”.

The base houses coalition troops, security contractors and other workers. All are said to have been in a “supporting” role since President Biden announced the withdrawal of US forces from combat roles in Iraq.

Troops were sent in 2014 to help the fight against Islamic State. Despite Biden’s announcement about 2,500 US troops have remained in Iraq, along with an undisclosed number of British and other allied forces, now designated as trainers and advisers.

The Iranian-backed militias were among the volunteer paramilitary groups that had official backing to fight Isis alongside the Iraqi army. They have established themselves as a political force, with parties representing them in parliament. They are smarting over not only the killing of Soleimani and Mohandis but the loss of many of their parliamentary seats at a general election in October.

They held a vigil yesterday outside the airport to mark the anniversary of the two men’s deaths, which passed off peacefully.

In another incident apparently timed to coincide with the date, the news website The Jerusalem Post and the Twitter account of the Hebrew-language Maariv were hacked to show an image of a missile being fired at Israel’s nuclear reactor.

The missile was shown emerging from a ring attached to a hand at the top edge of the image. The ring is similar to Soleimani’s, which became a popular image for the general in Iraq and among his supporters after his detached hand, still wearing it, was photographed in the wreckage of his vehicle after his death.

The image bore the legend in English and Hebrew: “We are close to you where you do not think about it”.

Soleimani was regarded as the West’s most feared opponent in the Middle East for over a decade; he masterminded paramilitary attacks on US and British targets in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. He also helped to build up other Iranian-backed militias in the region, including Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Trump ordered his assassination in retaliation for missile attacks on US bases in Iraq, which after a series of other retaliatory measures led to the storming of the American embassy by mobs loyal to the militias on New Year’s Eve 2019.

Iran has asked for Trump to be arrested over Soleimani’s killing.