www.aljazeera.com
Drone attack on US base near Baghdad airport foiled
The incident comes two years after a US drone strike killed Iran’s revered General Soleimani.
International
Two armed drones were shot down as they approached an Iraqi military base hosting US forces near Baghdad’s international airport, Iraqi security sources said, adding that nobody was hurt in the incident.
An official of the US-led international military coalition stationed there said the base’s defence system engaged “two fixed-wing suicide drones… they were shot down without incident”.
“This was a dangerous attack on a civilian airport,” the coalition official said in a brief statement on Monday.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Footage provided by the coalition showed what the official said was debris of two fixed-wing drones destroyed in the attack, with writing clearly visible on the wing of one drone reading “Soleimani’s revenge”.
The attack came as Iran and its allies in Iraq marked the second anniversary of the assassination of top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani who was killed in a drone strike ordered by Donald Trump near Baghdad airport.
Soleimani, head of an elite overseas unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed along with Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis on January 3, 2020.