More than twice as many US service members may have been injured in recent attacks in Iraq and Syria than the Pentagon previously disclosed, US defense officials said on Monday.
The military is monitoring approximately two dozen service members who may have suffered traumatic brain injuries (TBI) during the attacks, amid smoldering anti-US sentiments in the region over its unconditional support for Israel’s onslaught on the Gaza Strip.
Earlier, a drone attack targeted US occupation forces based near the Erbil International Airport.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of anti-terror fighters, has claimed responsibility for most of the dozens of recent attacks against US occupation forces in Iraq and Syria, saying they were carried out in retaliation for US support of Israel’s bloody military campaign against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The Iraqi anti-terror group said, for the first time they launched Al-Aqsa 1 medium-range missile against the US occupation’s bases in Iraq and Syria.
The group said in a statement that, “In the context of responding to the Israeli occupation’s crimes in its aggression on Gaza under US diktats and administration, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq reveals Monday, and for the first time, the putting into the medium range Aqsa 1 into service, wherein it was launched at US occupation bases in Iraq and Syria in some of its operations.”
The latest attacks came two days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to Baghdad amid stern warnings from the Iraqi resistance.
Since October 17, there have been at least 38 separate attacks on bases housing US forces in Syria and Iraq, mainly by drones, mortars or rockets.
Source: Agencies (edited by Al-Manar English Website)
