Booby-trapped UAV falls over Ain al-Asad military base, SMC says

Shafaq News / According to The Security Media Cell(SMC), Ain al-Asad Air Base, west of al-Anbar Governorate, was targeted on Saturday by an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that exploded inside the base.

In turn, the spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve(OIR), Col. Wayne Marotto, said, "This morning at 0220 Ain Al-Asad Air Base (AAAB) was attacked by an unmanned aerial surveillance system."

"No injuries reported. A hangar was damaged. The attack is under investigation," he added.

Over the past months, dozens of rocket attacks have targeted Iraqi facilities hosting diplomats or foreign troops, and the US embassy compound in Baghdad.

The frequency of these attacks has increased since the assassination of the commander of the Iranian "Quds" Force, Qassem Soleimani, and the leader of the "Popular Mobilization Forces", Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in an American airstrike in Baghdad, on January 3, 2020.

In a separate context, The Federal Intelligence and Investigations Agency detachments arrested on Saturday three terrorist siblings in a preemptive operation in Wadi al-Shay in the Kirkuk governorate.

According to the SMC, "one of the terrorists worked within the so-called Milit Bureau (Diwan al-Jund) in the cities of Daquq and Tuz Khurmato, and he hails from a terrorist family."

"The second terrorist was a security agent for the so-called Military Bureau in Daquq, and afterward was assigned to manage the affairs of ISIS members' families by distributing Kafalas."

The third individual, according to the SMC’s statement, "operated within the administration of the so-called Military Bureau and was the General Administrative Assistant for the southwestern regions of Kirkuk, and then was assigned to transport foodstuffs to terrorist cells in Wadi al-Shay and distribute so-called Kafala to their families."