(Reuters) – U.S. forces were attacked at an air base west of Baghdad on Tuesday and the U.S. military responded with an airstrike in self-defense, U.S. officials said, following the country’s first retaliation on Iraqi territory in response to dozens of recent attacks by militants with drones and missiles.
The Ain al-Asad airbase was attacked by a short-range ballistic missile that resulted in eight people being injured and minor damage to infrastructure, two US officials said.
The United States responded using an AC-130 aircraft that hit an Iranian-backed militia vehicle and several people involved in the attack. There were several casualties among the militants, officials said.
The attacks against US targets began on October 17 and were linked by Iraqi militias to US support for Israel in its bombardment of Gaza, following attacks by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israeli soil.
The attack on US targets ended a year-long unilateral truce that Iraqi factions, some formed after the US invasion in 2003 to confront US troops and others in 2014 to fight Islamic State, declared with Washington.
The US and international forces that make up the coalition fighting the remnants of Islamic State have been hit more than 60 times in Iraq and Syria since October 17, according to US officials.