ISIS militants attack Iraqi base housing US troops

Middle East, News February 14, 2015 , by IRIA No Comments

The Islamic State carried out a coordinated suicide bomber attack against the air base in western Iraq housing 320 US Marines.

The Pentagon confirmed the extremist group has taken control of al-Baghdadi, which is just eight kilometers away from the base.

The Friday attack was conducted by approximately 25 Islamic State fighters, the Pentagon told Reuters, and several suicide bombers were involved. Some of them were reportedly able to detonate their vests, though the exact number is unclear. Some of the militants were able to sneak into the base wearing Iraqi uniforms, and they were killed by Iraqi troops when fighting broke out.

Eight militants were killed in the attack on the base, US and Iraqi officials said.

Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said that initial reports Friday showed that all of the IS attackers were killed by Iraqi troops at or inside a gate to al-Asad air base in the western province of Anbar.

Officials also said that a group of ISIS militants tried to break into the heavily guarded Ain al-Asad air base on Thursday but were repelled by the Iraqi army, which was backed by coalition fighter planes.

There are approximately 320 Marines at the base training Iraqi security forces, though the Pentagon said Marines were not involved in the fighting. No US or Iraqi casualties have been reported.

Al-Baghdadi, located in Iraq’s Anbar province, had been under siege by radical Sunni Islamist militants for months and much of the Anbar province was captured by the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) during its rapid advance into northern and western Iraq last summer.