A militant faction in Iraq announced on Monday the drone bombing of the Al-Shaddadi military base in Syria. The statement from the militant faction, which calls itself ‘The Islamic Resistance in Iraq’, said on Monday that its fighters in Iraq attacked the occupied Al-Shaddadi base in Syria using drones. The statement clarified that the movement is continuing its resistance against the American occupation forces in Iraq and the region, and responding to the massacres in Gaza.
Armed factions continue to bomb military bases in both Iraq and Syria to target the American forces stationed at these bases. The number of attacks has exceeded 105, in addition to strikes targeting Israeli interests in the Mediterranean Sea and Iraq, and inside Eilat and the Syrian Golan, since the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza. This includes 47 incidents in Iraq and 55 in Syria, involving a mix of one-way attack drones, rockets, mortars, and close-range ballistic missiles. Most of these attacks either didn’t reach the bases or were shot down by U.S. defenses, but some resulted in 66 injuries to U.S. troops, mostly non-serious traumatic brain injuries. All the injured troops have since returned to duty. In response, the U.S. military carried out three strikes on facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in Syria and pursued at least one group of perpetrators following an attack in Iraq .
In a detailed account of the 2023 attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria, some specific incidents are highlighted. For instance, on October 18, 2023, amid the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, Iraqi militants launched a drone strike on the Al-Asad Airbase in northern Iraq, which was intercepted. In November, an armed drone targeted the Al-Harir air base in northern Iraq, resulting in three U.S. soldiers being injured. There were also multiple drone strikes on U.S. bases in eastern Syria, including the Al-Omar oil field and Al-Shaddadi in the Al-Hasakah Governorate.
