Region

BAGHDAD - Rockets were fired late Sunday from northern Iraq at a military base in Syria housing a US-led coalition, according to Iraqi security forces.
The anti-extremist coalition said one of its fighter jets in Iraq had "destroyed a launcher in self-defence after reports of a failed rocket attack" near a base in northeast Syria.

"No US personnel were injured," it added in a brief statement to AFP.

It is the first major attack against the coalition forces in several weeks.

It comes days after Israel reportedly responded to an Iranian attack with a drone strike on the Islamic republic, amid tensions fuelled by the Gaza war.
Iraqi forces had earlier said they launched a major search operation in the northern Nineveh province and found the vehicle used in the attack.

The statement from the Iraqi security forces accused "outlaw elements of having targeted a base of the international coalition with rockets in the heart of Syrian territory", at around 9:50 pm (1850 GMT).
The security forces burned the vehicle involved in the attack, the statement added.

Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, said several rockets had been fired "from Iraqi territory at the Kharab al-Jir base", where US forces are stationed.
He accused the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of Iran-backed groups, of staging the attack.
The group has claimed most of the attacks on US forces carried between mid-October and early February.

Rising regional tension 

Following a series of rocket attacks and drone strikes by pro-Iran armed factions against US soldiers deployed in the Middle East over the winter, there had been several weeks of calm.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has said it is acting in solidarity with Palestinians and out of anger at US support for Israel in the Gaza war.
A January 28 drone attack killed three US soldiers in the Jordanian border with Syria.
In response, the US military struck dozens of targets in Syria and Iraq, aiming for pro-Iran forces, and drawing criticism from the governments of both countries.
The United States has around 2,500 soldiers stationed in Iraq and nearly 900 across the border in Syria as part of an international coalition created in 2014 to fight the Daesh terror group.

Sunday night's rocket attack came against the background of increasing tension in the region, with a flare-up between Iran and Israel.

Early on Saturday, an explosion at an Iraqi military base killed one person and wounded eight others.
Security forces said the blast hit the Kalsu military base in Babylon province south of Baghdad, where regular army, police and members of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces, or Hashed Al-Shaabi, are stationed.

CENTCOM, the US military command in the region, denied involvement in a strike there. The Israeli army refused to comment.

ISLAMABAD — Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi will travel to Islamabad on Monday to meet his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said, as the two countries seek to mend ties following deadly cross-border attacks this year.

Raisi will be accompanied by “a high-level delegation comprising the foreign minister... as well as a large business delegation”, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

The tit-for-tat missile strikes in January in the porous border region of Balochistan — split between the two nations — stoked regional tensions already inflamed by the Israel-Hamas war.

Tehran carried out the strikes against an anti-Iran group in Pakistan the same week it targeted Iraq and Syria.

Pakistan responded with a raid on “militant targets” in Iran’s Sistan-Balochistan province, one of the few mainly Sunni Muslim regions in Shiite-dominated Iran.

Both countries have in the past accused each other of sheltering militants.

A visit to Islamabad by Tehran’s foreign minister led to the two sides pledging to improve dialogue and install liaison officers in both countries.

Sistan-Balochistan province has for years faced unrest involving cross-border drug-smuggling gangs and rebels from the Baloch ethnic minority, and Muslim extremists.

Raisi will also visit Lahore and Karachi to meet provincial leaders, according to the statement.

The countries will further strengthen ties and enhance cooperation in “trade, connectivity, energy, agriculture, and people-to-people contacts”, it added.

Pakistan is counting on a joint gas project with Iran to solve a long-running power crisis that has sapped its economic growth.

A $7.5-billion Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline intended to feed Pakistani power plants was inaugurated with great fanfare in March 2013.

But the project immediately stagnated following international sanctions on Iran.

Tehran has built its own section of the 1,800-kilometre  pipeline, which should eventually link its South Pars gas fields to the Pakistani city of Nawabshah, near Karachi.

In February, Pakistan’s outgoing caretaker government approved the construction of an 80-kilometre section of the pipeline, primarily to avoid the payment of billions of dollars in penalties to Iran due to years of delays.

Washington has warned that Pakistan could face US sanctions, saying it does not support the pipeline going forward.

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories — The Palestinian Authority will "reconsider" its relationship with the United States after Washington vetoed a Palestinian bid for full UN membership earlier this week, President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday.

"The Palestinian leadership will reconsider bilateral relations with the United States to ensure the protection of our people's interests, our cause and our rights," Abbas told the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Wafa said his remarks came "on the heels of the United States' use of veto power" at the UN Security Council.

Thursday's vote saw 12 countries on the Council back a resolution recommending full Palestinian membership and two — Britain and Switzerland — abstain.

Only the United States, Israel's staunchest ally, voted against, using its veto to block the resolution.

Abbas said the Palestinian leadership will "develop a new strategy to protect Palestinian national decisions independently and follow a Palestinian agenda rather than an American vision or regional agendas".

He said Palestinians would “not remain hostage to policies that have proven their failure and have been exposed to the entire world”.

And he said the stance of the US government had “generated unprecedented anger among the Palestinian people and the region’s populations, potentially pushing the region towards further instability, chaos and terrorism”.

TEHRAN — Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised the country's armed forces for their "success" in his first public comments since Tehran launched an unprecedented direct attack on Israel last week.

In a meeting with Iranian military commanders on Sunday, Khamenei praised the armed forces for their "success in recent events", a week after the country's first-ever direct attack on Israel from its own territory.

"The armed forces showed a good image of their abilities and power and an admirable image of the Iranian nation," Khamenei said. "They also proved the emergence of the power of the Iranian nation's determination at the international level."

The remarks from Iran's supreme leader are the first since Iran attacked Israel and since a reported Israeli attack on a military air base in central Isfahan province on Friday.

“The armed forces’ recent achievements have created a sense of splendour and magnificence about Islamic Iran in the eyes of the world,” Khamenei said in quotes posted on his official X account.

The Friday strike, which Khamenei did not mention, was a presumed response to Iran’s unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel which was itself a retaliation for an airstrike on the Iranian consular building in Damascus.

That attack, widely blamed on Israel, levelled the consular annex of the Iranian embassy and killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, including two generals.

Israel said it intercepted 99 per cent of the more than 300 drones and missiles fired at it, with the aid of the United States and other allies and that those which got through caused only minor damage.

Addressing his country’s attack on Israel, Khamenei said “the issue of the number of missiles fired or the missiles that hit the target” was “secondary”.

“The main issue is the emergence of the willpower of the Iranian nation and the armed forces in the international arena,” he said, according to his official website.

Iran and Israel appeared to have stepped back from the brink of a broader conflict following Friday’s attack, which Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian appeared to downplay to US media on Saturday.

Speaking to NBC News, he dismissed it as “no attack” and said the weapons used were “at the level of toys”, adding that if there was “no new adventure” by Israel then Iran “will have no response”.

The comments helped to dampen fears of an all-out war between the arch-foes which could spread into a wider regional conflict.

TEHRAN — Iran has dismissed as akin to child's play Israel's reported retaliation for an unprecedented Iranian strike, as both sides on Saturday appeared to step back from wider conflict stemming from the war in Gaza.

However a deadly blast at an Iraqi military base emphasised the high tensions which persist in the region, as did more deadly Israeli strikes in Gaza and intensifying clashes in the West Bank.

Fears have soared this month that escalating tit-for-tat attacks between Israel and Iran could tip over into a broader war in the Middle East.

Israel had warned it would hit back after Iran launched more than 300 missiles and drones a week ago in its first-ever direct attack on its arch enemy's territory.

The Iran attack was itself in retaliation for an air strike — widely blamed on Israel — that levelled the Iranian consulate in Damascus and killed seven Revolutionary Guards on April 1.

The Israeli retaliation appeared to come on Friday, when Iranian media reported blasts in the central province of Isfahan.

Fars news agency reported "three explosions" close to Qahjavarestan, near Isfahan airport and the 8th Shekari army airbase.

"What happened last night was no attack," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told NBC News.

"It was the flight of two or three quadcopters, which are at the level of toys that our children use in Iran," he added.

"As long as there is no new adventure on behalf of the Israeli regime against Iran's interests, we will have no response."

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Israeli officials have made no public comment on what — according to a senior US congressional source who spoke to AFP — were retaliatory Israeli strikes against Iran.

Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at Britain’s Chatham House think tank, said the reported Israeli strike had been “calibrated to avoid damage and further Iranian aggression”.

Iranian political expert Hamid Gholamzadeh said the incident in Isfahan, while “insignificant”, needs to be seen in the context of the “fight for balance of power” between the two countries.

“The region is on fire and an all-out war can be ignited any moment,” he said.

While tensions rose after the attack on Iran’s consulate, violence involving Iran-backed groups had already been surging across the Middle East since the outbreak of the Gaza war.

Officials in Iraq said one person was killed and eight wounded in an explosion at a military base south of Baghad housing a coalition of pro-Iranian armed groups.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Since the Gaza war began, violence has also flared in the other occupied Palestinian territory, the West Bank.

The Israeli army said on Saturday that its forces killed 10 militants and arrested eight other people during a 40-hour raid on a refugee camp in the northern West Bank.

The Palestinian health ministry said 11 people were wounded in the Israeli raid, including a paramedic who was shot trying to get to the wounded.

Nine members of one family killed 

Israel has faced growing global opposition over its military offensive in Gaza, which has reduced vast areas of the besieged Palestinian territory to rubble, while aids groups have warned the north is on the brink of famine.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under pressure over the rising civilian toll, needs “further escalation and another war to distract the world attention” away from suffering in Gaza, Iranian analyst Gholamzadeh said.

There have been particular fears about Israel’s intention to send troops into the southernmost city of Rafah, where most of the population is now sheltering having fled violence elsewhere.

Foreign ministers of the G7 group of developed economies, meeting in Italy on Friday, said they opposed a “full-scale military operation in Rafah” because it would have “catastrophic consequences” for civilians.

But even without a full operation, the city has been under regular bombardment.

On Saturday, Gaza’s Civil Defence agency said an overnight Israeli strike in Rafah killed nine members of a family including six children.

Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the Israeli army had also hit several other areas of Rafah overnight, adding: “It has been a very hard night.”

The war was triggered by a sudden attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel has responded with a retaliatory offensive that has killed at least 34,049 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the latest toll from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Famine fears 

Israel’s military said it struck dozens of militant targets over the past day, including the site in north Gaza from which a rocket was fired into the Israeli city of Sderot.

Witnesses in the central Nuseirat refugee camp said the Israeli army told them to evacuate one home, then several were destroyed.

“They instruct us to evacuate and return later, but where do we go back? To ruins?” asked resident Abu Ibrahim.

“How long will this farce continue?”

A UN report on Friday said “multiple obstacles” continue to impede delivery of urgently needed aid.

Despite some recent aid convoys being able to reach Gaza, the WFP cited “the real possibility of famine” in the north.

Efforts to seal a long sought-after truce have stalled, according to mediator Qatar.

After Washington vetoed a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member state earlier this week, President Mahmud Abbas said his West Bank-based Palestinian Authority would “reconsider” its relationship with the US.

BAGHDAD — One person was killed and eight wounded in an overnight explosion at an Iraqi military base housing a coalition of pro-Iranian armed groups, officials said on  Saturday.

The full details remain unclear hours after the blast hit the Kalsu military base in Babylon province south of Baghdad, where regular army, police and members of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces, or Hashed Al Shaabi, are stationed.

It comes days after Iran launched an unprecedented assault on Israel which reportedly responded with a drone strike on the Islamic republic, amid tensions fuelled by the Gaza war.

The Iraqi security forces' media unit said "an explosion and a fire" hit the Kalsu base in the early hours of Saturday, leaving one person dead and eight wounded.

Air defence command reported “no drones or combat aircraft in the airspace of Babylon province before or during the explosion”, it added in a statement.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Shortly after the explosion, the US military said its forces were not behind a reported strike in Iraq.

“The United States has not conducted air strikes in Iraq today,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) posted on social media platform X, adding that reports that American forces had carried out a strike were “not true”.

When reached by AFP, the Israeli army said it “does not comment on information published in foreign media”.

In a statement, Hashed al-Shaabi said an “explosion” had inflicted “material losses” and casualties, without giving a number.

The group confirmed its premises on the military base had been hit and that investigators had been sent to the site.

‘Odious crime’ 

An interior ministry official had initially reported an “aerial bombing” on the site.

“The explosion hit equipment, weapons and vehicles,” said the source.

An Iraqi military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject, said the overnight explosion had occurred in “warehouses storing equipment”.

Responding to questions from AFP, security sources did not say who may have been behind the attack.

The Hashed Al Shaabi is an integral part of the official Iraqi security apparatus under the authority of the prime minister.

It brings together several pro-Iran armed factions, some of which have also carried out dozens of attacks in Iraq and Syria against US forces deployed as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition.

“We will retaliate against whoever is behind this aggression,” Hashed commander Abu Alaa Al Walai wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Those involved in this odious crime will pay the price.”

The Hashed issued another statement on Saturday morning that referred to a meeting between its chief of staff and investigation committees at the site of the attack.

On Friday, strikes blamed on Israel targeted a military base near the city of Isfahan in central Iran.

The explosion came in response to Tehran’s unprecedented attack on Israel last weekend, in retaliation for a deadly strike on Iran’s embassy in Damascus.

Iraq’s foreign ministry expressed “strong concern” on Friday over the blast in Iran, warning of the “risks of military escalation which threatens security and stability in the region”.

“This escalation must not be allowed to divert attention from what’s happening in the Gaza Strip,” it said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al Sudani is in Washington, where he met US President Joe Biden this week.