At least 10 rockets slammed into a military base in western Iraq hosting U.S.-led coalition troops on Wednesday, security sources said, leaving one civilian contractor dead.

"One civilian contractor died of a heart attack during the attack," a high-level security source told AFP, adding that he could not confirm the contractor's nationality.

The attack on the sprawling Ain al-Assad base in Iraq's western desert comes after several weeks of escalating U.S.-Iran tensions on Iraqi soil.

It also comes just two days before the first-ever papal visit to the country by Pope Francis, who said he would still make the visit so as not to "disappoint" the Iraqi people.

Ain al-Assad hosts both Iraqi forces and U.S.-led coalition troops helping fight the Islamic State group, as well as the unmanned drones the coalition uses to surveil jihadist sleeper cells.

Coalition spokesman Colonel Wayne Marotto confirmed that 10 rockets hit the base at 7:20 a.m. (04:20 GMT) while Iraqi security forces said they had found the platform from which 10 "Grad-type rockets" hit the Ain al-Assad base.

Western security sources told AFP the rockets were Iranian-made Arash models, which are 122mm artillery rockets and heavier than those seen in similar attacks.

(Cover: File photo of U.S. military vehicles are seen at Ain al-Asad air base in Anbar province, Iraq, January 13, 2020. /Reuters)