At least 33 rockets target US, UK troops in Iraq

A number of rockets were fired targetting foreign troops deployed in an Iraqi base north of Baghdad, Iraqi and US security sources said.

"The initial toll is two wounded Iraqi Air Defence personnel who are in very critical condition," said Tahsin al-Khafaji, spokesman for Iraq's Joint Operations Command on the attack at the Taji airbase.

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At least 33 rockets struck Iraqi air defence units at the airbase, the country's military said, in one of the largest such volleys ever.

Another 24 missiles at a nearby launching site have been found and the owner of the plot of land and security forces from an adjacent checkpoint are detained for questioning, Iraq's military said.

This was the 23rd attack since late October that aim installations across Iraq where American forces and diplomats are present. None of the groups has claimed responsibility for these attacks but the US has blamed hardline elements of the Hashed al-Shaabi, a network of armed groups.

The US-led coalition said three of its people and two Iraqi soldiers were injured in the latest attack.

The US-led coalition's surveillance capabilities have been affected by cloudy weather in recent days, which a US official said could have motivated the attackers to launch the rockets during the day instead of night.

This attack came three days after a similar attack which killed two American military personnel and a British soldier, the deadliest attack of such nature at an Iraqi base in years.

The US responded on Friday with airstrikes on arms depots, which it said were used by Kataeb Hezbollah, an Iran-favoured group within the Hashed.

The strikes killed at least five personnel of Iraq's security forces and one civilian, as per the country's military.

Iraq has faced trouble because of the enmity between two of its allies: Iran and the US. And the country started facing a lot of trouble because of this when the tussle between Iran and US spiked in late 2019 when a US contractor was killed in a rocket attack in northern Iraq.

The US, in a retaliatory move, killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and Hashed deputy chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis which greatly increased the global concerns.

After the death of Soleimani, Iran launched ballistic missiles at US military in Iraq, while Iraqi parliament voted in favour of expelling all foreign armies from its soil, a move that is still not implemented.

Some 5,200 American troops are deployed in Iraq as part of US-led coalition to help local forces weed out the remnants of the Islamic State group.