One U.S. contractor experienced a fatal heart delivery during the attack, which was the latest in a series of rocket missiles that have raised concerns about rising tensions in the region. No U.S. servicemen were injured.
Later on Thursday, Senator Bob Menendez (DN.J.) told CNN that the attack was carried out to his knowledge by Iran’s “surrogates in the region”.
“They have given them green lights to carry out these kinds of attacks. There must be consequences for that,” Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, urging the president to “come to Congress” before he ” ordered a military response.
The Biden government has yet to publicly blame Tehran for the latest attack, which came days after US fighter jets bombed military positions used by Kataib Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups in eastern Syria late last week.
“We can not at present attribute responsibility, and we do not have a complete picture of the extent of the damage,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement Wednesday.
Biden last week ordered a strike in Syria, which destroyed the targeted targets and killed at least one militant, after officials determined that Iran was facilitating three separate attacks in Iraq that endangered Americans.
Iraqi security forces were at the scene “almost immediately” after Wednesday’s attack, Kirby said. Iraqi news media reported that investigators found a rocket launcher in a civilian truck that they said was used in the attack.
The circumstances of the latest strike on Al-Asad are similar to past attacks related to Kataib Hezbollah, the defense officials said. Although a myriad of Shia-based military groups in Iraq often take direction from Tehran, they are not always under direct Iranian control.
It is believed that Kataib Hezbollah also carried out an attack on the K-1 air base in Iraq in December 2019, killing a U.S. contractor and wounding Iraqi and U.S. troops, and triggering a series of attacks that culminated in then-President Donald Trump’s order to assassinate Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani. Kataib Hezbollah commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was also killed in that strike.
In response to the Soleimani strike, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps launched a barrage of missiles on al-Asad on January 8, 2020. More than 100 U.S. troops suffered traumatic brain injuries during the incident.
Kirby insisted on caution with the latest attack, but said the US would respond if necessary.
“Let’s let our Iraqi partners investigate,” he said. “If an answer is needed, I think we have clearly shown that we will not shy away from it.”
Nick Niedzwiadek contributed to this report.