US Personnel Suffer Minor Injuries in Iraq Base Attack

A member of Iraqi security forces is seen at Ain al-Asad airbase in the Anbar province, Iraq December 29, 2019. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/File Photo
A member of Iraqi security forces is seen at Ain al-Asad airbase in the Anbar province, Iraq December 29, 2019. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/File Photo
TT

US Personnel Suffer Minor Injuries in Iraq Base Attack

A member of Iraqi security forces is seen at Ain al-Asad airbase in the Anbar province, Iraq December 29, 2019. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/File Photo
A member of Iraqi security forces is seen at Ain al-Asad airbase in the Anbar province, Iraq December 29, 2019. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/File Photo

US personnel suffered minor injuries and a member of Iraq's security forces was seriously wounded in an attack on Iraq's Ain al-Asad air base on Saturday, a US official said, citing initial assessments, which are subject to change.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said initial reports indicated that the base was hit by ballistic missiles but left open the possibility the base was hit by rockets, adding an assessment was ongoing.

An American drone crashed north of Baghdad, a US defense official said Friday, after Iran-backed militants claimed they fired on an unmanned aircraft flying over Iraq.

“A US UAV crashed near Balad airbase, Iraq” on Thursday night local time, the official told AFP, without identifying the type of drone that was lost.



WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
TT

WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday.

"While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.

Israel's military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples in the enclave.

Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.