Seven U.S. personnel were injured in Monday’s rocket attack at al Asad Air Base in Iraq, two of whom were evacuated for further care, according to a defense official.
Two rockets hit the base at approximately 2 p.m. on Monday, leaving five service members and two contractors injured, the official told the Washington Examiner. The official added that five of the seven who were injured are receiving care at the base. All seven are now in “stable condition.”
The military is carrying out post-strike assessments on the damage at the base.
The Middle East is on edge awaiting an Iranian attack on Israel, which Tehran has vowed in response to last week’s assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Israel did not take responsibility for the attack, though it did take credit for the assassination days earlier of a Hezbollah commander.
Defense officials have been in regular communication with their Israeli counterparts for several days ahead of the expected response.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant on Sunday and again on Monday, while U.S. Central Command leader Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla is in Israel meeting with his counterparts in person.
“Secretary Austin and Minister Gallant agreed that today’s Iran-aligned militia attack on U.S. forces stationed at Al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq marked a dangerous escalation and demonstrated Iran’s destabilizing role in the region,” Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder said in a readout of the Monday call.
The Pentagon has surged resources and personnel to the Middle East in preparation for Iran’s response.
Late last week, Austin ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group to replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group, additional ballistic missile defense-capable cruisers and destroyers to the Europe and Middle Eastern area, the deployment of an additional fighter squadron to the Middle East, and an increases in readiness to deploy additional land-based ballistic missile defense.
It’s not clear how or when Iran will attack Israel, and there is the potential for any of Iran’s proxy forces that it supports (Hezbollah included) to be involved in the response. Iran’s proxies (Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and militias in Iraq and Syria) have carried out attacks against U.S. military personnel or Israel since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack that ignited the current war in the region.
On the morning of Oct. 7, thousands of Palestinian militants overpowered the border fence and went into local communities, where they proceeded to kill men, women, and children alike. Some terrorists traversed into an outdoor concert venue near the border and killed hundreds of attendees. Hamas also captured and kidnapped about 250 people, about 100 of whom continue to be held in Gaza.
Since the Oct. 7 attack, Israel and Hezbollah have engaged in limited fighting that has primarily consisted of cross-border rocket and missile fires. The frequent attacks have forced residents in northern Israel and southern Lebanon to evacuate. Hezbollah is considered a larger group with more sophisticated weaponry.
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Iran rarely confronts Israel militarily. The two sides more frequently engage in covert assassinations and sabotage the other side. But in April, Tehran carried out an unprecedented aerial attack against Israel, which included the launching of roughly 300 rockets, missiles, and drones from Iranian territory and some of its proxies. The attack was in response to an Israeli strike on an Iranian Consulate in Syria on April 1 that killed a senior Iranian commander and others.
Ahead of that attack, the United States and other allies added resources to the region to help Israel defend itself. Nearly all of the projectiles were intercepted, and no one was killed in the attack.