Kataib Hezbollah attacks Taji base in Iraq

Ali Ragab

The US and the pro-Iranian Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah exchanged strikes in Iraq. Kataib Hezbollah targeted Taji base, north of Baghdad, with Katyusha rocket. The attack followed a similar attack that had killed and wounded US and British soldiers. The new attack is the 23th of its kind against US military targets in Iraq since October 2019.

Iraqi media reports said that the US wing of the base was attacked by about 18 missiles. Katyusha attacks on US targets have been on the rise since February 26.

Central Command chief Gen Kenneth McKenzie said in a tweet: “We have information that confirms KH conducted the rocket attacks on Camp Taji on March 11th that killed three coalition members and injured fourteen others. We assess that KH has launched 12 rocket attacks against coalition forces in the last six months”.

The Taji camp comprises an airport and a large military base, maintenance workshops and training centers.

Michael Knights, a Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who has worked on Iraq since the 1990s, explained in an article that “as someone who has gotten lost while walking around the maze of concrete barriers that make up the 15-square-mile Camp Taji base, I can attest to the great accuracy of the strike”.

Knights argued that there are 3 options for the US in Iraq:

US withdrawal from Iraq. One option is always to leave, which is what Kataib Hezbollah, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, and the Islamic State want us to do. The historical track record suggests we might just be drawn back in later, under even less favorable circumstances, possibly even to fight an Iraq that is under Iran’s control.

Take the low road. A second option is that we can play Iran and its militias at their own game, and simply kill a lot more of them in a rolling campaign of elimination. This is well within our capabilities and might result in a dramatic and long-lasting reduction of Iran’s influence in Iraq, but there is also a risk — though not a certainty — that this galvanizes anti-Americanism.

Take the high road. A final option is that the US can somehow play the victim and the responsible actor in this drama and limit its retaliation to immediate and proportionate strikes, largely outside Iraq to reduce the risk of Iraqi nationalist responses.

Knights recommended attacks demonstrated against some senior Iraqi militia leaders in order to make others think very seriously about their personal future.