BAGHDAD, June 13 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Joint Operation Command (JOC) on Saturday warned the militant groups against continuing their attacks on military bases.
A JOC statement said that despite the warnings, some militant groups are still threatening the military bases, including the rocket attack a few hours ago on al-Taji Camp, some 20 km north of Baghdad.
"They are sending a message that they don't want the good for Iraq and its people, therefore our security services have received urgent directions to conduct an intelligence effort to reveal those groups and bring them to justice," the JOC statement said.
The statement came a few hours after unidentified militants fired two rockets from an area outside the government-owned industrial facility and they landed on al-Taji Camp, housing U.S. troops, without causing casualties, according to earlier statement by the JOC media office.
The attack came two days after U.S. and Iraqi officials held a strategic dialogue session via a video conference in which the United States pledged to continue reducing its forces in Iraq and confirmed that it does not seek permanent military presence in the country.
The Iraqi-U.S. relations have witnessed a tension since Jan. 3 when a U.S. drone struck a convoy at Baghdad airport, which killed Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces.
The U.S. airstrike prompted the Iraqi parliament on Jan. 5 to pass a resolution, requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in the country.
More than 5,000 U.S. troops have been deployed in Iraq to support the Iraqi forces in the battles against the Islamic State militants, mainly providing training and advising to the Iraqi forces. Enditem
