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At the least 24 U.S. troops had been damage amid a wave of assaults on their bases in Iraq and Syria over the previous week, together with one incident that precipitated accidents to twenty personnel, officers mentioned Tuesday.
The Biden administration, for days, has withheld these particulars whereas acknowledging that service members within the Center East are beneath heightened threat as Israel prepares to launch a floor offensive in opposition to Hamas within the Gaza Strip. Hamas has a long-standing relationship with Iran, which gives its fighters with weapons and coaching, fueling fears that teams throughout the area receiving comparable assist from Tehran will step up their focusing on of U.S. personnel.
Probably the most important of those most up-to-date assaults occurred Oct. 18 on the al-Tanf Garrison in southeastern Syria, the place 20 troops suffered what U.S. navy officers characterised as “minor accidents” when a number of one-way drones focused the bottom, the officers mentioned, talking on the situation of anonymity as a result of the problem is taken into account extremely delicate. All affected personnel have returned to responsibility, officers mentioned.
That very same day, a number of drones additionally had been launched in opposition to U.S. and coalition forces in two separate assaults on Ain al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq, officers mentioned. At the least 4 folks suffered “minor accidents” and returned to responsibility, although a hangar holding small plane was destroyed, they are saying.
In a 3rd incident that day, a U.S. citizen working as a contractor died after struggling cardiac arrest when an early warning system detected one other doable menace approaching the bottom, prompting one other scramble to take shelter. The dying was beforehand disclosed by the Pentagon.
The next day, on Oct. 19, U.S. and coalition forces endured rocket assaults at three installations: Mission Assist Web site Euphrates in Syria, Ain al-Asad Air Base and the Baghdad Diplomatic Assist Heart in Iraq, officers mentioned. There have been no casualties or infrastructure harm in these incidents, they mentioned.
Assaults continued over every of the following three days, with one-way drones hitting unoccupied areas in Bashur, Iraq, and focusing on Ain al-Asad and al-Tanf once more.
Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, advised reporters earlier Tuesday that there had been 13 assaults over the past week, with 10 in Iraq and three in Syria. Pressed for extra particulars, he mentioned that U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. navy operations within the Center East, was compiling a “complete record for the general public file” to be launched “as quickly as doable.”
“We’re nonetheless persevering with to make sure that this accounts for all the pieces,” he mentioned. “We’ll get that to you as quickly as doable.”
NBC Information first reported the variety of injured American personnel.
About 2,500 U.S. troops are in Iraq and 900 are in Syria, a part of a permanent mission to stop a resurgence within the Islamic State militant group. Ryder mentioned throughout Tuesday’s Pentagon information convention that “we all know” the militias chargeable for the assaults are supported by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the USA designated a international terrorist group in 2019.
“What we’re seeing,” he added, “is the prospect for extra important escalation in opposition to U.S. forces and personnel throughout the area within the very near-term coming from Iranian proxy forces and in the end from Iran.”