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At least 24 U.S. soldiers were injured in a wave of attacks on their bases in Iraq and Syria last week, including an incident that left 20 soldiers injured, officials said Tuesday.
The Biden administration has withheld those details for days but acknowledged that military personnel in the Middle East are at increased risk as Israel prepares for a ground offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has a longstanding relationship with Iran, which supplies its fighters with weapons and training, raising fears that groups across the region that receive similar support from Tehran will step up their attacks on U.S. personnel.
The most significant of these recent attacks occurred on October 18 at al-Tanf Garrison in southeastern Syria, where 20 soldiers suffered what U.S. military officials described as “minor injuries” when several disposable drones targeted the base, the officials said . I speak on the condition of anonymity because the topic is considered highly sensitive. All affected employees have returned to duty, officials said.
On the same day, multiple drones were fired against U.S. and coalition troops in two separate attacks on the Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq, officials said. At least four people suffered “minor injuries” and returned to duty, although a hangar housing small aircraft was destroyed, it said.
In a third incident that day, a U.S. citizen working as a contractor died after suffering cardiac arrest when an early warning system detected another possible threat approaching the base, prompting a renewed attempt to seek shelter. The death was previously announced by the Pentagon.
The following day, on Oct. 19, U.S. and coalition forces suffered rocket attacks on three facilities: the Euphrates Mission Support Site in Syria, the Ain al-Asad Air Base and the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center in Iraq, officials said. There were no injuries or damage to the infrastructure in these incidents, it said.
The attacks continued over the next three days, with disposable drones hitting unoccupied areas in Bashur, Iraq, and again targeting Ain al-Asad and al-Tanf.
Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters earlier Tuesday that there had been 13 attacks in the last week, including 10 in Iraq and three in Syria. When asked for more details, he said that U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, was preparing a “comprehensive list for the public” that would be released “as soon as possible.”
“We continue to make sure that all of this is taken into account,” he said. “We will get this to you as quickly as possible.”
NBC News first reported the number of American soldiers injured.
About 2,500 U.S. troops are in Iraq and 900 in Syria, part of an ongoing mission to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State militant group. Ryder said during Tuesday’s Pentagon news conference that “we know” that the militias responsible for the attacks are backed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the United States designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 2019.
“What we are seeing,” he added, “is the prospect of an even greater escalation against U.S. forces and personnel across the region, coming from Iranian proxy forces and ultimately from Iran in the very near future.”