The spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to reporters on November 9, 2023. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday warned that recent attacks on United States troops in Syria and Iraq highlight the risk that the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza could spread through the region.
“I think we're very concerned about these developments that we've seen not only in Syria but in Iraq,” spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told Rudaw’s Sinan Tuncdemir during a press briefing when asked about attacks by a pro-Iran militia group on US troops.
“They are an indication of the risk of further spreading of the conflict that we have seen. And it is incumbent on everyone to respect the territorial integrity of Syria and Iraq and to engage in maximum possible restraint so as not to increase the risk of spreading,” he added.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a pro-Iran militia group, has claimed responsibility for dozens of drone and rocket attacks on US troops in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq and Syria since last month in reaction to Washington’s support for Israel in its war against Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
On Monday, Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder told journalists that there had been a total of 38 attacks on US troops since October 17. Twenty of them in Iraq and 18 in Syria.
According to the Pentagon spokesman, 45 American personnel were injured in the attacks, all of them prior to US retaliatory strikes on facilities used by groups affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Syria on October 26.
Around 2,500 American troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria are leading an international coalition in 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 2019.
The storage facility of Erbil province’s Harir air base housing US troops caught fire late Thursday after two suicide drones hit the base. The same pro-Iran group claimed responsibility for the attack.
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