BAGHDAD: Iraqi soldiers backed by US-led coalition aircraft repelled an attack on Friday by the Islamic State group on a base where hundreds of US troops are training local security forces, officials said.
“The Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) supported by Coalition surveillance assets defeated the attack (on the Al-Asad air base in western Iraq), killing all eight attackers,” a US military statement said.
About 300 members of the US security forces are at the base in the heart of Anbar province training Iraqi troops.
An Iraqi army colonel and a defence ministry official said the botched attack involved at least seven would-be suicide bombers using a military vehicle.
It came hours after IS fighters launched an offensive on the nearby town of Al-Baghdadi, one of the few in the Sunni province still under government control.