Rocket hits military base housing U.S. forces in northern Iraq

A Katyusha rocket on Thursday landed on a military base that houses U.S. troops in Iraq's northern province of Kirkuk, a local security source said.

The attack took place in the evening when the rocket hit K1 military base in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk without causing casualties, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Iraqi police forces searched the area where the rocket launched from, and found a 12-rocket Katyusha launcher with only one rocket was fired on the base, the source said.

The attack came at the anniversary of Arbaeen, or 40 days after the death of Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces, who were killed on Jan. 3 by a U.S. drone strike on their convoy at Baghdad airport.

Two days after the death of Soleimani and al-Muhandis, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq.

The K1 military base was the target for a rocket barrage late in December 2019, which led to the killing of a U.S. contractor and the wound of others.

Military bases housing U.S. troops across Iraq and the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad have been frequently targeted by insurgents' mortar and rocket attacks.

Over 5,000 U.S. troops have been deployed in Iraq to support the Iraqi forces in the battles against Islamic State (IS) militants, mainly providing training and advising to the Iraqi forces.