ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A pro-Iran Iraqi militia group on Sunday claimed it attacked United States forces with drones in northeast Syria.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of shadow Iraqi militia groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said in a statement that it used drones to attack the Tel Baydar base that houses the US troops in Hasaka province.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that drones coming from the direction of Iraq targeted American troops in Hasaka and the sound of at least one explosion was heard near the base. SOHR initially reported that the drone was Turkish.
Rudaw English contacted the US-led global coalition for confirmation, but they were not immediately available.
The Islamic Resistance militia has claimed responsibility for most of the dozens of recent attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria, linking them to American support for Israel against the Hamas Movement in the Gaza Strip.
The Pentagon in late October blamed Iranian proxies for 27 attacks on its forces in Iraq and Syria. There have been more assaults since then.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told CBS News last week that American troops have responded to threats against them in the Middle East and will continue doing so, warning that “[W]e are seeing elevated threats against our forces throughout the region, and an elevated risk of this conflict spreading to other parts of the region.”
“We are doing everything in our power to deter and prevent that. But I'm not going to predict what the future brings, other than to say that if we are attacked, we will respond,” he added.
CORRECTION: This corrects a previous piece titled "US downs Turkish drone in northeast Syria: War monitor" after the original source retracted its story.
UPDATED at 8:35 pm with the correction