“To date, there have been approximately 140 attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria,” said Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh, adding that 57 of the strikes targeted US forces in Iraq, and 83 in Syria.
Singh did not specify the number of US personnel injured in the attacks.
US troops in Iraq, the Kurdistan Region, and Syria have been the target of a series of rocket and drone attacks by pro-Iran militias since mid-October, in response to Washington supporting Israel in its war against Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of shadow Iraqi militia groups backed by Iran and affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The group on Thursday claimed responsibility for a drone strike on a US-led coalition against Islamic State (ISIS) base near Erbil International Airport. The drone was shot down and destroyed according to The Directorate General of Counter Terrorism (CTD).
A military base housing international troops near Erbil International Airport on the northwestern edge of the city and Harir airbase some 50 kilometers to the northeast are frequent targets, and so is the Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq’s western Anbar province.
The US has responded on several occasions, sparking outcry from the Iraqi government and calls from hardline Iraqi Shiite politicians to expel coalition forces from the country.
In early January, an American drone strike targeted the Popular Mobilization Forces’ (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi) Harakat al-Nujaba in Baghdad, killing two, including Mushtaq Talib al-Saeedi, better known as Abu Taqwa. He was the former commander of al-Nujaba and the deputy commander of the PMF’s Baghdad Belt Operations.
A day after the deadly strike, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani said his government is working to establish a committee to expel the international coalition from the country.
Around 2,500 American troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria are leading an international coalition through Operation Inherent Resolve that has assisted Kurdish, Iraqi, and local Syrian forces in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), which once held swathes of land in Iraq and Syria but was declared territorially defeated in 2017 and 2019 respectively.
