A total of 22 missiles have hit two bases housing US troops in Iraq but there were no Iraqi casualties, according to Iraq's military. The online statement came hours after Iranian state television said Iran had launched missiles at US targets in the early hours of Wednesday in retaliation for the United States's killing last week of top military commander Qassem Soleimani."Between 1:45am and 2:15am [22:45 GMT and 23:15 GM] Iraq was hit by 22 missiles, 17 on the Ain al-Asad airbase and ... five on the city of Erbil," the Iraqi military said.
"There were no victims among the Iraqi forces," it added, without mentioning whether or not there were casualties among foreign troops. Following the strikes, US President Donald Trump said on Twitter that an "assessment of casualties & damages taking place now".More than 5,000 US troops remain in Iraq along with other foreign forces as part of a coalition that has trained and backed up Iraqi security forces in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) armed group.Some 115 German soldiers are stationed in Erbil and all were fine, a spokesman for Bundeswehr operations said.
Denmark, which has about 130 soldiers in Iraq, said no Danish soldiers were wounded or killed in the attack on Ain al-Asad, the largest airbase where US-led coalition troops are based. It was the first time Iran directly hit a US installation with ballistic missiles. Soleimani, who headed Iran's Quds Force, the overseas arm of the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps, was buried after the missile attacks, Iranian state television said. "His revenge was taken and now he can rest in peace," it said.
The missiles were launched at the same time of the day that Soleimani was killed on Friday near the international airport in Iraq's capital, Baghdad. He was buried in the "martyrs section" of a cemetery in his hometown of Kerman.
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