Rockets Launched at Iraq’s Ain Al-Asad Airbase, No Casualties, Sources Say 

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meets with Iraq Defense Minister Muhammad Al-Abbasi at the Pentagon in Washington, US, July 23, 2024. (Reuters)
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meets with Iraq Defense Minister Muhammad Al-Abbasi at the Pentagon in Washington, US, July 23, 2024. (Reuters)
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Rockets Launched at Iraq’s Ain Al-Asad Airbase, No Casualties, Sources Say 

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meets with Iraq Defense Minister Muhammad Al-Abbasi at the Pentagon in Washington, US, July 23, 2024. (Reuters)
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meets with Iraq Defense Minister Muhammad Al-Abbasi at the Pentagon in Washington, US, July 23, 2024. (Reuters)

Multiple rockets were launched at Iraq's Ain al-Asad airbase housing US-led forces late on Thursday, US and Iraqi sources said, with no damage or casualties reported.

Two US officials said the base itself had not been struck in the attack.

The attack came two days after a military summit in Washington where Iraqi and US officials discussed winding down the coalition's work a decade after it was formed to fight ISIS as it stormed across Iraq and Syria.

No major announcement was made at the end of the talks, though US and Iraqi sources say an announcement that it will begin to gradually wind down is likely in the coming weeks.

Iran-aligned Iraqi political and military factions have pressured the country's government to quickly draw down the coalition's work and say they want all 2,500 troops deployed by the country's one-time occupier to leave.

Washington and the Iraqi government say they want to transition to a bilateral security relationship that would likely see some troops remain in an advisory role.

US-led forces invaded Iraq in 2003, toppled former leader Saddam Hussein and then withdrew in 2011, only to return in 2014 to fight ISIS at the head of the coalition.

Iran-backed Iraqi armed factions have targeted bases housing US troops in Iraq and Syria dozens of times since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, though there have only been a handful of attacks since February, when a truce took hold.



Iraq Seizes More than One Ton of Captagon Pills Shipped from Syria

Pills, which according to fighters loyal to the new ruling Syrian body are captagon, lay scattered next to a container, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria December 12, 2024. (Reuters)
Pills, which according to fighters loyal to the new ruling Syrian body are captagon, lay scattered next to a container, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria December 12, 2024. (Reuters)
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Iraq Seizes More than One Ton of Captagon Pills Shipped from Syria

Pills, which according to fighters loyal to the new ruling Syrian body are captagon, lay scattered next to a container, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria December 12, 2024. (Reuters)
Pills, which according to fighters loyal to the new ruling Syrian body are captagon, lay scattered next to a container, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria December 12, 2024. (Reuters)

Iraq's security forces have seized an estimated 1.1 ton of captagon pills hidden inside a truck that entered Iraq from Syria via Türkiye, the Interior Ministry said on Sunday.

The drug shipment, the largest ever seized in Iraq, was tracked and intercepted with the assistance of "important information" provided by Saudi's drug enforcement agency, the Interior Ministry spokesperson Brigadier Muqdad Meri said in a televised statement.

Western anti-narcotics officials say the addictive, amphetamine-type stimulant known as captagon has for years been mass-produced in Syria.

Captagon - a mix of amphetamines also known as the "poor man’s cocaine" - is one of the more popular recreational drugs in the Middle East.