US and coalition forces in Iraq and Syria came under attack four separate times on Thanksgiving Day, according to a US official.
On Thursday morning, multiple one-way attack drones were launched against troops at Al-Asad Airbase, and one one-way attack drone targeted Erbil Airbase in Iraq. A multi-rocket attack was also launched against forces at Mission Support Site Euphrates in Syria. On Thursday afternoon, another one-way attack drone was launched against forces at Mission Support Site Green Village in Syria.
All four followed an attack on Wednesday afternoon, when a one-way attack drone was launched against Erbil Airbase, the official said.
There were no casualties or infrastructure damage reported in any of the attacks, according to the official.
The latest attacks mark at least 73 against US and coalition forces since October 17. They also follow a US air strike on Tuesday evening – Wednesday morning local time – on two facilities used by the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah group in Iraq.
US Central Command said that the airstrikes were “in direct response to the attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces by Iran and Iran-backed groups, including the one in Iraq on November 21, which involved use of close-range ballistic missiles.”
A defense official added that the facilities – an operations center and command and control node near Al Anbar and Jurf al Saqr, Iraq, south of Baghdad – were used by Kataib Hezbollah to “support recent attacks on US and coalition bases in Iraq and Syria.”
At least eight Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah fighters were killed and four other wounded following the US strikes, the group said in a statement.
While the strikes were the first in Iraq since attacks on US and coalition forces began, they were the fourth US strike against targets associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps since the attacks started on October 17.
The first strike occurred on October 26 when an F-15 fighter and two F-16 fighter jets targeted two weapons and ammunition storage facilities in Abu Kamal, Syria. Then on November 8, two F-15s carried out an airstrike on a weapons storage facility in eastern Syria. On November 12, the US carried out more airstrikes on a training facility and a safe house affiliated with the IRGC.
The attacks on US and coalition forces started after Hamas’ attack on Israel, and the Pentagon has maintained that the US has been successful in deterring any escalatory actions that would expand the conflict outside of Israel and Gaza despite the continued attacks on US forces.
“Is deterrence working? We feel that it is,” Singh told reporters last week. “We have not seen this war spread into a wider regional conflict. We have … conducted three different strikes. We responded most recently this weekend. And again, we will always reserve the right to respond at a time and place of our choosing in the future.”