Several U.S. personnel are believed to be injured following a suspected rocket attack on U.S. and coalition forces at al-Asad airbase in Iraq, a defense official confirmed to NBC News.
Additional details were not available as base staff members are conducting a post-attack damage assessment, the official said.
President Joe Biden has been briefed, a White House official said.
The attack comes amid growing fears that the Israel-Hamas war will spill over into a wider conflict in the Middle East following assassinations in Beirut and Tehran last week. Israel announced it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in a strike in Lebanon. Hours later, it was reported that Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh had been killed in Iran.
Though Israel’s military has not taken responsibility for Haniyeh’s death, Iranian officials blamed the country for the attack. An Israeli official told NBC News on Sunday that officials were bracing for potential retaliatory attacks from both Hamas and Iran.
State Department spokesman Matt Miller said Monday that Biden was convening his national security team to discuss ways to keep the 10-month siege of the Gaza Strip from becoming a full-blown regional conflict.
Biden posted Monday on X about what he and Vice President Kamala Harris were told in the Situation Room:
“We received updates on threats posed by Iran and its proxies, diplomatic efforts to de-escalate regional tensions, and preparations to support Israel should it be attacked again,” the post said.
Biden continued, “We also discussed the steps we are taking to defend our forces and respond to any attack against our personnel in a manner and place of our choosing.”
The White House said in a statement that Biden and Harris were also “briefed on continued diplomatic efforts … to bring the ceasefire and hostage release deal to a conclusion.”
A source for the attack on the U.S. base in Iraq has not been identified. It is not the first time American personnel have been hurt in the Middle East in recent months. Three American personnel were killed in January in an attack on coalition forces at a base in Jordan.
Biden blamed “radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq” at the time, responding with retaliatory strikes.
Nbcnews
