(Baghdad) A new drone attack targeted an Iraqi base housing American troops on Saturday, security sources in Iraq said, which the Pentagon said it could not confirm.
It is the fifth attack in four days to target American and foreign troops in Iraq, where armed factions close to Iran threaten American interests because of Washington’s support for Israel, the target of a deadly attack. an unprecedented scale carried out on October 7 by the Islamist movement Hamas.
The attack on Saturday did not cause any casualties and was claimed by a group called “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” on Telegram channels affiliated with Shiite factions loyal to Iran.
A “drone fell inside the base” of Aïn al-Assad, in western Iraq, where American troops and the international anti-jihadist coalition are deployed, a military source told AFP Iraqi woman who requested anonymity. The machine caused “no damage”.
A second local security official spoke of “two drones”: “the first was intercepted and the second fell due to a technical problem”.
The Pentagon, however, indicated that it was not aware of an event of this type.
“We have not seen any operational reports that confirm” that an attack took place on Saturday, said a US Department of Defense official on condition of anonymity.
The Ain al-Assad base, that of al-Harir, in northern Iraq, and a military camp near Baghdad airport have been targeted by five attacks since Wednesday. These bases host American and coalition soldiers.
Some 2,500 American soldiers and a thousand soldiers from other member countries of the coalition are today stationed on bases held by Iraqi forces.
In recent days, factions loyal to Iran, which supports Hamas and does not recognize the State of Israel, have increased threats against the United States. One of them, the Hezbollah Brigades, demanded that the Americans “leave” Iraq, “otherwise they will taste the fires of hell”.
More than 1,400 people have been killed on Israeli territory by Hamas fighters since October 7, the majority of civilians mowed down by bullets, burned alive or dead of mutilation on the first day of the attack carried out from the Gaza Strip , according to Israeli authorities.
In the Gaza Strip, nearly 4,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed in incessant bombings carried out in retaliation by the Israeli army, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.