Islamic State militants attempted Friday to bomb an Iraqi military base where U.S. Marine troops train.
Eight suicide bombers made it onto the base where U.S. Marines train their Iraqi counterparts before they were killed, according to CBS News. The attackers did not reach the American forces on the secluded Ain al-Asad airbase west of Baghdad. A U.S. defense official said the attackers were believed to have been members of ISIS, which holds positions just a few miles northeast of the base in the al-Baghdadi area.
ISIS had been regularly shelling Ain al-Assad for the past couple of days, but no one has reported any damage from the shelling or from the attempted bombing. The base has a 12-mile-circumference security fence around it. Officials did not know how the suicide bombers made it past the fence, which includes watch towers, barbed wire and a bridged entrance on a river.
A defense department spokeswoman said that heavy fighting took place Thursday in al-Baghdadi, Fox News reported. Sources said the Iraqi troops had made progress in clearing out the ISIS fighters who had taken control of the area after invading from all sides during a sandstorm. District manager Naji Arak said that 90 percent of the al-Baghdadi region has been under the control of ISIS.
There are about 2,600 U.S. troops in Iraq, including the 450 who are training Iraqi troops at three of the bases in the country. Troops from other countries train their soldiers at a fourth site in the northern city of Irbil.
