Defense systems at the US-run Ain Al-Asad base in Iraq’s Western province of Anbar have shot down a drone while it was hovering near the base, Iraqi state media reports.
Iraq’s Al-Maalouma news agency, citing an unknown military source, said on Sunday, January 8 that the unmanned aircraft had managed to pass through the entire security rings and enter the ‘off-limits and inaccessible’ areas of Ain Al-Asad base.
‘At the last stage, American soldiers were able to shut it down with electronic systems,’ the source said, adding, ‘The drone reached very important parts of the Ain Al-Asad base and this was the first time that it happened.’
The source said that the US military targets any suspicious thing that moves toward the base before it reaches the first security ring.
‘The American military has not released the details of the incident because the drone passed through the missile defense systems of the Ain Al-Asad base and threatened the dormitories and sanatoriums of the soldiers,’ the source added.
Iraqi media said it was not clear whether the drone was on a surveillance mission or if it was carrying any explosives as no damage or casualties were reported.
Ain Al-Asad has been targeted several times since the US assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the top anti-terror commanders of Iran and Iraq, near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.
The US-led international military coalition said in a statement that it had conducted ‘an operational exercise…that involved engaging an Unmanned Aerial System’ at Ain Al-Asad base as part of a training exercise.
However, no damages or casualties were reported, the sources added.
