Iraq’s airbase has been attacked; Hezbollah wants revenge; Possible attack in Syria’s Aleppo

By TOC On Jan 13, 2020

PANAGYURISHTE, (BM) – Your briefly report on January 13 in last twelve hours from BulgarianMilitary.com:

Four Iraqi servicemen wounded by rocket attack on airbase

Four members of Iraq’s military were wounded in a rocket attack targeting an airbase just north of Baghdad where American trainers are present, Iraqi security officials said on Sunday.

The attack, which included at least six rockets, came just days after Iran fired ballistic missiles at two bases in Iraq that house U.S. forces, causing no casualties.

The recently heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran were sparked last month when a rocket attack killed an American contractor at a base in Iraq. The U.S. has blamed Iran-backed militias for the attack and others.

Sunday’s attack wounded an Iraqi air force officer and three enlisted men, Iraqi security officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack as of yet.

The rockets struck the Balad airbase, which hosts American trainers, advisers and a company that provides maintenance services for F-16 aircraft. Some rockets fell on a restaurant inside the airbase, the officials said.

The base is located some 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

A statement from the Iraqi army’s official media office confirmed the attack but said eight rockets hit the base, and that two officers had been wounded. The difference in accounts could not immediately be reconciled.

Hezbollah: It’s time for Iran’s allies to start working to avenge Soleimani

Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Sunday it was time for Iran’s allies to begin working to retaliate for the killing of Major General Qassem Soleimani though it would be a “long path” to the goal of ejecting U.S. forces from the region.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah also denied the Iranian general had been planning to blow up U.S. embassies. U.S. President Donald Trump said he had been killed after he landed in Baghdad in part because “they were looking to blow up our embassy”.

Hezbollah, a heavily armed group designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States, was established in 1982 by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and is an important part of a regional Tehran-led alliance known as “the axis of resistance”.

Iran responded for Soleimani’s killing by launching missiles at two military bases in Iraq that house U.S. forces on Wednesday. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called it a “slap on the face” of the United States and said U.S. troops should leave the region.

Though the region remains tense, both sides have backed off from intensifying the conflict since the Iranian attack.

Syrian regime’s forces reinforces military equipment in preparation for possible operation in Aleppo

The Syrian regime’s forces have completed military preparations for an operation in Aleppo’s suburbs and villages.

This operation’s objective is to open the international road that links Aleppo and Hama, in line with the Sochi agreement of 2018, and to secure Western Aleppo against “terror,” according to the Syrian newspaper Al-Watan, which is known for its connections to Bashar Al-Assad’s regime.

Al Watan cited an anonymous source as saying that the regime’s army has deployed new equipment, including advanced missiles that have not been used in Aleppo before, to the city’s Western fronts and the province’s southern villages. This is an indication that a possible military operation might start at any moment.

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BulgarianMilitary.com
Editorial team
Source: Reuters, MEMO, Ynet