Topline
Attacks on US military positions in Syria and Iraq have intensified since October—injuring dozens of troops originally stationed in the Middle Eastern countries to combat ISIS.
Troops in western Iraq and eastern Syria have all come under fire since the war in Gaza began … (+)
AFP via Getty Images
Key Facts
October 17: a series of “mostly unsuccessful” drone strikes hit the US Ain al-Asad airbase and al-Tanf military base in western Iraq—a total of 21 personnel at the bases suffered minor injuries and all returned to active duty days later, the Defense Department confirmed.
October 19: another drone struck Ain al-Asad, and a US contractor died after going into cardiac arrest while sheltering in place.
October 26: US forces conducted “self-defense strikes” on two bases in eastern Syria that the Defense Department said were used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and their proxy groups in the country.
November 8: Drones struck both Ain al-Asad and the al-Harir airbase in Erbil, while an improvised explosive device damaged a military vehicle near Mosul, sources told the Guardian.
November 8: The US responded to the ongoing strikes with more airstrikes on weapons storage facilities in northeastern Syria used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Defense Department announced.
November 12: US forces in the al-Omar oil field and at the al-Shaddadi military base in northeastern Syria were attacked with drones and rockets three times, military sources confirmed to Reuters.
December 8: Rockets were fired near the US Embassy in Baghdad, located in the area known as the Green Zone, striking the facility’s gate but causing no serious damage or injuries.
December 25: A one-way drone launched by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-aligned Shia militia in Iraq, injured three US soldiers at al-Harir airbase, prompting retaliatory airstrikes in Iraq against drone facilities used by the group.
Key background
The US troops in Iraq and Syria are the remains of the larger mission launched in 2014 to combat the Islamic State’s rise to power in the region… (rest of the content unchanged)
Tangent
Elsewhere in the Middle East, the Houthi movement in Yemen began a campaign of drone and rocket attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea… (rest of the content unchanged)
Further Reading