US troops in Iraq, Syria faced 13 attacks in week – Pentagon
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – US troops stationed in Iraq and Syria have faced 13 attacks over the past week, involving both drones and rockets, a senior Pentagon official said on Tuesday.
US Department of Defense spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said that between October 17-24, US troops in Iraq were targeted 10 times, while those in Syria experienced three attacks during the same period.
Pentagon officials have attributed all the attacks to Iran, although there is currently no evidence directly linking Iran to these assaults.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) has revealed a total of eight attacks. However, the specifics of the additional five attacks, yet to be reported by CENTCOM, remain unclear.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict on October 7, following a surprise attack by Hamas, many militias in Iraq, Syria, and even Lebanon have stepped up their threats of targeting US forces.
One of the notable attacks occurred on October 18 at the Ain al-Asad airbase, located in west of the Iraqi city of Anbar. US forces engaged two drones, destroying one and damaging the other. The incident resulted in minor injuries to the US-led Coalition forces and some damage to the base. In addition, during the same morning in Iraq, an early warning system detected a potential threat approaching the airbase. Personnel at the base took shelter as a precautionary measure, but no attack materialized. “Sadly, a U.S. civilian contractor suffered a cardiac episode while sheltering [and] passed away shortly thereafter,” Ryder said during a briefing on Thursday.
Also on the same day, attacks were carried out at the al-Harir air base near Erbil, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), and the al-Tanf garrison in southern Syria. The former incident caused no reported injuries, while the latter resulted in four US service members being injured.
Moving on to October 19, the USS Carney intercepted and neutralized four land attack cruise missiles and 15 drones launched by Houthi forces in Yemen while sailing in the northern Red Sea.
Further attacks occurred on October 19 at the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center near Baghdad International Airport and at a mission support site in northeast Syria.
On October 20, another attack targeted the al-Harir air base, and on October 23, the al-Tanf garrison in Syria experienced another assault by two drones, which was later claimed by the Islamic Resistance of Iraq, a militia affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).