Embarrassing Misfire: Pro-Iran Militia Hits Iraqi Military Aircraft While Targeting U.S. Forces
Celebrations turned to silence after Iran-aligned militias accidentally struck an Iraqi Air Force transport plane during a failed raid on Baghdad's U.S. diplomatic center. No casualties reported as groups scrub social media posts.
Iranian-backed Shiite militias launched a drone-and-rocket attack on Baghdad International Airport late Sunday night, initially claiming a direct strike on a U.S. military and diplomatic facility.
Channels affiliated with the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” (an umbrella group that includes factions from the Popular Mobilization Forces) quickly celebrated the operation on social media and Telegram, posting claims of success against the U.S. Victoria Base, also known as Camp Victory, a diplomatic support center located within the airport complex.
Hours later, it emerged that the munitions had missed the American target entirely.
Photographs and video confirmed that the strike instead damaged an Iraqi Air Force Antonov An-32B military transport plane parked on the Iraqi military side of the airport. The aircraft sustained visible structural damage, according to open-source intelligence accounts that reviewed the imagery.
No casualties were reported from the incident, and there has been no immediate official comment from Iraqi authorities or the U.S. military on the strike.
The embarrassing misfire is the latest in a series of attacks by Iran-aligned groups targeting U.S. and coalition-linked sites in Iraq amid ongoing regional tensions. Militia operations have frequently involved imprecise munitions, leading to previous friendly-fire risks near shared airport infrastructure.
Militia channels have since removed or edited several of the original celebratory posts.