Syria
U.S. forces patrol the countryside of Rumaylan in Syria's northeastern Hassakeh province near the border with Turkey on December 4, 2022. Photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran-backed militia groups targeted US troops in Syria’s Hasaka province on Sunday, a war monitor reported, amid a series of attacks targeting American interests in Iraq and Syria.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that Iran-backed militia targeted al-Shadadi military base, adding that the drones were launched from Iraq.
A group calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which is a network of shadow Iraqi militia groups backed by Iran and affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said earlier on Sunday that it had struck al-Shadadi base with two drones, claiming to have “directly hit their targets”.
The group has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria over the past two weeks.
The attack comes a day after they claimed to have hit American troops in al-Tanf garrison in Homs province, southern Syria.
The US has blamed Iran for the attacks on its troops and has warned against any further escalation.
“We know that these are Iranian-backed militia groups that are supported by Iran and of course we hold Iran responsible for these groups,” Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said during a press briefing on Thursday.
In response, the US on Thursday carried out airstrikes against pro-Iran militia groups in eastern Syria, upon a directive from US President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.
US forces in Iraq and Syria as part of an international coalition to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) have been the target of a recent spate of drone and rocket attacks blamed on Iran-backed militia groups angry over Washington’s support for Israel in its war against Gaza.
Austin said the retaliatory strikes in Syria on Thursday were “separate and distinct” from Israel’s war on Hamas and did not constitute a shift in Washington’s approach to the war in the Gaza Strip.
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