Fears of a wider Middle East conflict intensified late on August 5 as a U.S. spokesperson confirmed that “several” American personnel were injured in a rocket attack claimed by pro-Iran fighters on a military base in Iraq.
"There was a suspected rocket attack today against U.S. and coalition forces at Al-Asad Airbase, Iraq,” the spokesperson said. “Initial indications are that several U.S. personnel were injured."
Details of the attack, potential casualties, and damages remain unclear.
One of Iran’s so-called proxy groups -- an Iraq-based militia -- claimed to have launched the assault on the base in Iraq’s Anbar Province that hosts some of the remaining U.S. soldiers in the country, just days after a U.S. air strike killed at least four pro-Iran extremists in Iraq.
Iran-backed groups have resumed rocket attacks on U.S. troops in recent days after a lull, apparently seeking to punish Washington for its close alliance with Israel.
The report comes as concerns grow that Iran, or one of its proxy groups, could seek revenge after the assassination in Tehran of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the U.S.- and EU-designated Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
Iran and its Lebanese Hizballah ally -- which has also been deemed a terrorist organization by Washington -- vowed to avenge that attack and other deadly strikes in Iran and Beirut that Tehran has blamed on Israel.
Iran on August 5 said punishing Israel will prevent further instability in the Middle East, but it added that it does not want to escalate tensions already running high after the assassination of Haniyeh.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Iran and its proxies against attacking his country and said Israel was already in a "in a multifront war against Iran's axis of evil."
The Tasnim news agency, which is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani as saying that "we believe that Iran is entitled to punish the aggressor within the framework of international law…. Iran will definitely and decisively take serious and deterrent measures by exercising its inherent right on the basis of international principles to ensure its security."
SEE ALSO: What Hamas Leader's Killing Means For Talks Aimed At Ending Gaza War"Iran believes that stability will be achieved with the punishment of the aggressor," he added.
Israel has not taken responsibility for Haniyeh's killing in the Iranian capital in what has become a major embarrassment to the authorities in Tehran.
Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu arrived in Tehran on August 5, according to Russian state media, for a working visit with senior Iranian officials, including President Masud Pezeshkian, who was sworn in less than a week ago.
According to Iranian state media, Pezeshkian told Shoigu that Tehran was determined to expand relations with its "strategic partner” and expressed appreciation for Moscow’s support.
"Russia is among the countries that have stood by the Iranian nation during difficult times," Pezeshkian reportedly told Shoigu.
The IRGC said on August 3 that a short-range projectile was behind the killing and accused the United States of supporting the attack, which it blamed on Israel. The IRGC said in a statement that a rocket with a 7-kilogram warhead was used to target the residence of Haniyeh, who was the political leader of Hamas.
Citing unnamed sources, The New York Times reported that the blast that killed Haniyeh was a bomb covertly smuggled two months ago into the guesthouse where Haniyeh was staying in Tehran.
Kanaani said the international community, and the United States in particular, had failed to help maintain stability in the region.
SEE ALSO: How Will Rising Middle East Tensions Impact Afghanistan and Pakistan?A day earlier, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pledged Washington's "iron-clad support" for Israel if Tehran were to launch an attack.
On August 5, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that Washington has sent messages through diplomatic channels urging countries to tell Tehran that escalation in the region "is not in anyone's interest."
Miller told a briefing that Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on August 5 with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on regional tensions, but he did not say whether messages had been delivered to Iran.
Washington and Tehran do not have diplomatic relations and messages are often transmitted by third-party nations.
As calls for de-escalation continue from around the globe, Tehran has called for an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) over Haniyeh's assassination. The group, which consists of 57 states including all of Israel's neighbors, agreed to meet on August 7.
Tensions have been running high in the region since Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7 that killed some 1,200 people, with another 240 being taken hostage as Hamas fighters retreated back into the Gaza Strip.
In response, Israel launched a withering war against Hamas that, according to the Hamas-led Health Ministry, has left almost 40,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands homeless.
Then, on April 13, Iran attacked Israel with more than 300 drones and missiles -- which caused limited damage and casualties -- in response to a suspected Israeli air strike on the Iranian Embassy compound in Damascus on April 1 that killed seven Iranian commanders, including two generals.