Islamic State (IS) militants attacked an air base in Iraq's Anbar province housing US military personnel, according to media reports Friday.
CNN reported, citing the US Central Command that militants attacked the strategic Ayn al-Assad air base in the Anbar province in western Iraq, but all of them were killed before coming anywhere near the US personnel.
"Well, it looks like they at least got to the outer base limits," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told CNN. "We're still looking at this and it's hard to say whether they breached the perimeter or not. But they certainly got to the perimeter level at the very least."
Kirby said that 20-25 militants led by suicide bombers undertook the attack and most, if not all, of the attackers were wearing Iraqi military uniforms.
The Pentagon said in a statement that the US forces were "several kilometers" away from where the fighting happened.
Ayn al-Assad, the largest military base in the Anbar province, is also where US instructors train Iraqi pilots. Nearly 800 members of Iraqi security forces had been training with the coalition forces at the air base, the US Central Command said.
While military officials said that the US forces were not directly threatened in Friday's skirmish, Kirby acknowledged that "no question that they (were) close to danger".
The nearly 400-strong US team there didn't feel immediately threatened, but did have the "right, responsibility, obligation to shoot back" if they felt threatened by militants, Kirby said.
The attack has led to speculation that the US forces may be drawn into ground combat with the IS in Iraq.
However, US officials have repeatedly downplayed the possibility of renewed ground combat in Iraq after the expensive and divisive US combat operation that drew to a close with the final withdrawal of troops in 2011, although US and coalition airstrikes do continue in the area.
The Ayn al-Assad attack comes amid news that IS militants took full control of the western Iraqi town of al-Baghdadi early Friday, about 15 km away from the Ayn al-Assad air base.
The IS fighters seized the city northwest of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad Friday after attacking the government forces from three directions.
The militants who attacked the air base came in from the direction of al-Baghdadi, two security officals in the Anbar provincial office told CNN.
