A drone of pro-Iranian militants was launched at an air base in Erbil (Iraq), broke through the US air defense system and crashed into the second floor of a US military barracks. This happened at about five o’clock in the morning on October 26, writes Reuters citing two American officials.
The material notes that the explosive device on the drone did not detonate, and as a result, only one soldier received a concussion from the impact.
The sources added that “the US was lucky” because “the drone could have caused carnage if it had exploded.”
The incident was one of at least 40 drone and rocket attacks on U.S. troops carried out by Iranian-backed militants in Iraq and Syria over the past three weeks in retaliation for U.S. support for Israel in the war against Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip, according to the Pentagon.
The publication writes that these strikes caused several dozen “minor” injuries, and many missiles and drones were intercepted by American air defense systems in Iraq and Syria, where a total of 3,400 American troops are based.
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Iran and its allied factions, like the United States, do not want direct confrontation, said David Schenker, a former assistant secretary of state at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank. However, “the risks are growing,” he warned.
The possibility of a large strike that would draw the United States into the conflict “is a very realistic concern,” he said.
“I think they are calibrating attacks to ‘nightmare’ rather than mass-kill American troops. But they can do much more,” he said of Iraqi and Syrian fighters.
- From October 17 to October 24, 2023, US military bases in the Middle East were attacked more than 10 times by drones and missiles during combat missions in Iraq and Syria. As a result, 20 American troops were wounded.
- On October 20, during an address to Americans, US President Joe Biden assured that the United States will hold Iran accountable for supporting the Russian war against Ukraine and the Hamas war against Israel.
- October 27 US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said at a briefing that on October 26, the United States carried out strikes on two Iranian targets in Syria.
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Source: liga.net
