DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (AP) – The United States (US) Air Force said on Saturday it was the subject of a “propaganda attack” by a previously unheard-of Iraqi militant group that falsely claimed it had launched a drone attack targetting American troops at an air base in Kuwait.
The statement by the Air Force’s 386th Air Expeditionary Wing came hours after the group calling itself Al-Waretheen, or ‘The Inheritors’, put out an online statement claiming that on August 12, it targetted Kuwait’s Ali Al Salem Air Base. The statement included a video showing a drone being launched from a stand, but offered no evidence of an attack or any damage done at the base.
The statement claimed the alleged attack aimed to avenge the US drone strike that killed a prominent Iranian Revolution Guard General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in January 2020.
The air base is located a few dozen kilometres from the Iraqi border.
“The misinformation falsely stated an Iranian militia group used (drones) to carry out an attack on base,” the Air Force statement to The Associated Press said. “No such attack occurred.”

The statement suggests the US believes that Al-Waretheen is likely an Iranian group, though it described itself as Iraqi.
The Air Force added that the online claim “only aims to deceive their audience in believing a lie” and that the Air Force and Kuwait “continue to project air power throughout the region without disruption”.
Kuwait, a small, oil-rich nation bordering Iraq and Saudi Arabia also near Iran, is considered a major non-NATO ally of the US. Kuwait and the US have had a close military partnership since America launched the 1991 Gulf War to expel Iraqi troops after Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded the country.
Some 13,500 American troops are stationed in Kuwait, which also hosts US Army Central’s forward headquarters. Those forces have supported the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and later operations against the Islamic State group.
Kuwait did not immediately acknowledge the claimed attack. Its Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday night.