Rockets hit Iraqi base hosting US troops, no casualties

Multiple rockets on Sunday hit a base in the Iraqi capital Baghdad hosting troops from the US-led international coalition deployed in the country, security sources said.

Coalition spokesman Col Myles B. Caggins said the rocket attack in Baghdad's Green Zone caused no injuries.

"No casualties. Investigation ongoing," Caggins tweeted without giving further details.

The Iraqi security media cell said in a tweet that three of the four Katyusha rockets fired in Baghdad fell in the Green Zone, home to foreign embassies and government offices, Efe news reported.

The fourth landed in the logistical support office of the government-backed Shiite militia Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in eastern Baghdad, causing material damage to a vehicle, according to the media cell.

In recent months, Iraqi military bases hosting foreign troops in Baghdad and other areas in the country's north have seen several attacks amid tensions between the United States and Iran.

Washington has blamed these attacks on the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah (KH) militia group, a PMF faction.

A number of rockets Friday had struck the K1 military base in the northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk, the first such attack since December 27.

The December strike had killed a US contractor and wounded four US service members and two members of the Iraqi Security Forces, setting up a series of confrontations in a major flare-up of tensions in the region.

In retaliation to the attack, Washington struck KH positions in Iraq and Syria that resulted in the death of 25 people, prompting hundreds of protesters to march to the US embassy in Baghdad.

The US then responded with a drone strike that killed top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani and PMF deputy head Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes on January 3, evoking a furious response from Tehran, which fired missiles on a US base in Iraq five days later without causing any deaths.

On January 5, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution calling for the government to end the presence of foreign troops in Iraq and revoke its request for assistance from the US-led international coalition.

The coalition is in Iraq with the aim of helping ensure the lasting defeat of the IS and provide advice and assistance to the Iraqi security forces, according to the Pentagon.

Around 5,000 US troops remain deployed in different military bases in Iraq.