On November 17 morning, a large fire broke out at hangers housing United States military aircraft and equipment in al-Harir Air Base in the Erbil province of the northern Iraqi autonomous region of Kurdistan after a drone attack.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), a coalition of Iranian-backed armed factions, claimed responsibility for the attack on the air base, saying in a statement that it was carried out “in response to the crimes committed by the enemy [Israel] against people in Gaza.”
Video footage released by the IRI showed the launch of a single suicide drone identical in design to the Iranian-maMH-47G Chinook and MH-60M Black Hawk helicopters as well as MQ-1C Gray Eagle combat drones of the U.S. elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment are usually deployed in al-Harir Air Base, right near the hangars which were set on fire by the drone attack.
A few hours after the attack on al-Hairri, the IRI announced that it had two other bases hosting U.S. troops with suicide drones, Ain al-Assad Air Base in the western Iraqi province of al-Anbar and Tell Beydar base in the northeastern Syrian governorate of al-Hasakah.
The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has not yet commented on the recent attacks on al-Harir, Ain al-Assad and Tell Beydar bases.
The IRI formed a special operations room to support Palestinian armed factions in Gaza and began launching attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and neighboring Syria following the October 17 Al-Ahli Arab Hospital massacre.
So far, the Pentagon admitted that 58 attacks have targeted U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, lightly wounding more than 50 troops.
The CENTCOM launched several retaliatory strikes against targets linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the eastern Syrian governorate of Deir Ezzor in an attempt to deter the IRI. However, the number of attacks on U.S. forces appears to be increasing.
Poster Comment:
Video only at source. The Iraqi parliament asked the American military to leave.