We were just waiting for the day

And now it has happened. DAESH fighters have attacked an Iraqi base with n American troop presence. Large base and a small force of mostly suicide bombers meant the twain have not met, yet.

A small group of Islamic State militants attacked a base in western Iraq where hundreds of U.S. troops are stationed, the U.S. military confirmed Friday, raising concerns about whether the Americans will be drawn into direct combat with the extremists.

Iraqi security forces supported by “surveillance assets” from the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State killed eight militants outside the Ayn al-Asad airbase in Iraq's Anbar province at 7:20 a.m., the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement. The men were would-be suicide bombers who tried to enter the base disguised as Iraqi army soldiers, said Sulaiman al-Kubbaisi, a spokesman for Anbar’s provincial council.

The attack came a day after militants took control of most Baghdadi, a town less than five miles from the base, where 320 U.S. service members have been training Iraqi troops and tribal fighters.

U.S. forces were “several kilometers” from the attack and were at no stage under direct threat, the statement said. Still, the targeting of a base hosting U.S. troops underscored the risk that Americans could be drawn into real engagement with the militants on the battlefield. President Obama has made a formal request for congressional authority to use military force against the Islamic State, a move that critics argue could increase that risk.

“We readily admit that al-Anbar is a contested region,” Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said Friday in an interview on CNN. “But . . . this is a huge, sprawling base, roughly the size of Boulder, Colo.,” and it has “mini-bases inside the big base,” he added. “This incident . . . happened nowhere near where U.S. or coalition forces were operating.”

Kirby said of the U.S. trainers and advisers, “there’s no question that they’re close to danger.” Even though they do not have a ground combat mission, “they have the right to defend themselves,” he said. “And should they ever feel under threat, they certainly have the right, the responsibility, the obligation to shoot back.”

Nothing to worry about. The time is not yet to re-launch combat operations.