Rockets Strike US-led Coalition Base in Syria

Rockets were fired from northern Iraq at a military base in Syria housing a US-led coalition, according to Iraqi security forces.

In response, the Iraqi forces launched a major search operation in northern Nineveh province and found the vehicle used in the attack, they said in a statement.

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.

The statement from the Iraqi security forces accused "outlaw elements of having targetted a base of the international coalition with rockets in the heart of Syrian territory".

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" in northeast Syria, where US forces are stationed.

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.

The ministry of interior official said the "aerial bombing" had killed one person and wounded eight others, while the military source reported three Iraqi military personnel had been wounded in a strike.

In a statement, Hashed al-Shaabi said an "explosion" had inflicted "material losses" and casualties, without specifying the number of wounded.

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

Hashed al-Shaabi, an alliance of mainly Shiite armed groups formed to fight the Islamic State group, has been integrated into Iraq's regular security apparatus.