Published: 10:29, November 12, 2023 | Updated: 10:37, November 12, 2023
3 booby-trapped drones hit 2 US military bases in Syria, Iraq
By Xinhua

This picture taken on July 8, 2021, shows a view of the Ain al-Assad air base hosting US forces in Iraq in the western Anbar province. (PHOTO / AFP)

BAGHDAD - Three booby-trapped drones on Saturday hit two US military bases, one in Syria and the other in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

An armed group calling itself the "Islamic Resistance in Iraq," which is an umbrella body for Iranian-backed Iraqi militias, claimed launching two of the drones in an online statement.

The statement said that the drones hit their targets in the US military base in the Rumailan area in northeastern Syria, without providing further details.

A Kurdish security source anonymously told Xinhua that a booby-trapped drone attacked Harir Airbase outside the city of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region, at noon

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Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, confirmed that a US base in the Rumailan area was attacked by two drones from the Iraqi territories and that no casualties were reported.

Separately, a Kurdish security source anonymously told Xinhua that a booby-trapped drone attacked Harir Airbase outside the city of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region, at noon.

The attack caused minor damage to the airbase, the source said, adding that no armed group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack on the air base.

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The recent attacks by armed groups in Iraq and Syria are believed to be part of a series of retaliatory measures against the US forces amid the ongoing conflict between US-backed Israel and Hamas, a Palestinian faction, in the Gaza Strip, according to the observatory.