5 shells hit military base housing US forces in Iraq
Xinhua
1580518027000

iraq.jpg

This file photo taken on January 3, 2020 shows a general view of the US embassy from across the Tigris river in Iraq's capital Baghdad. (Photo: AFP)

BAGHDAD, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- A total of five shells struck Friday a military base housing US forces in Iraq's northern province of Nineveh, the Iraqi military said.

The attack took place in the night when the shells landed on al-Qayyara air base in south of the provincial capital city of Mosul, the media office affiliated with the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said in a statement.

The were no human or material casualties by the attack, the statement said.

A security source in Mosul told Xinhua that Katyusha rockets landed at the perimeter of al-Qayyara air base without causing casualties.

The attack came a week after thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Baghdad upon the request of the Iraqi prominent Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr, in which he called for a scheduled withdrawal of US troops from Iraq through peaceful means.

The Iraqi parliament passed a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq on Jan. 5, two days after a US drone strike killed 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.

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