Twenty to 25 Islamic State fighters attacked a major Iraqi base housing U.S. forces Friday, using a combination of suicide bombers and a follow-up force to attempt to penetrate the base’s perimeter, the Pentagon said.
The attack by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria on Al Asad air base, a massive Iraqi base northwest of Baghdad where several hundred of the 2,600 U.S. troops are housed, follows continuous indirect fire attacks upon the base this week and the capture of the nearby town of al Baghdadi by ISIS earlier in the week.
The Pentagon, however, said the recent upticks in violence do not mean that the Islamic State is regaining ground in Anbar province.
“This is an enemy we assess to be in a defensive posture,” said Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby.
The U.S. troops were several miles from the firefight, Kirby said.
The Islamic State fighters were all wearing Iraqi military uniforms when they launched the attack, which only lasted a few minutes, Kirby said. The attack was “led by at least several suicide attackers .. some of them did detonate their vests, and then they were followed roughly by 15 or so other fighters,” Kirby said.
The extremist group’s fighters were stopped by members of Iraq’s 7th Infantry Division, who were guarding the base’s perimeter. While some of the suicide bombers were successful in detonating themselves, the rest were killed by members of the division.
