An attack by a militia tied to Iran marked the first such incident against American forces in the Middle East in two months. The hostile action took place in the aftermath of the United States aiding Israel in shooting down Iranian missiles and drones launched earlier this month.
Two attacks targeted U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria on Sunday but resulted in no injuries. The attacks were the latest in almost 200 such attacks by Iran-affiliated groups in the Middle East since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
In addition, an aircraft most likely launched by the United States destroyed a rocket launch site following the attempted attack on U.S. forces in Syria. The Pentagon said that the warplane targeted a “truck with rockets on it that was shooting rockets all over the place.”
“We certainly condemn the attack by an Iran-aligned militia group against U.S. forces in Syria. We’ve seen these attacks, obviously, in the past. We have made quite clear to Iran, we’ve made quite clear to Iran’s proxy groups that we will defend our interests, we will defend our personnel and that continues to be the case,” said a State Department spokesperson this week.
American, British and Jordanian planes aided Israel in shooting down some of the more than 300 missiles and drones launched by Tehran against Israel. The barrage was the largest of its type in history and the first one to be launched directly by Iran against its Mideast nemesis.
No U.S. personnel were injured in an attack Sunday near a base in Syria hosting U.S. troops, a Pentagon official said. https://t.co/8GrVJvWfek
— Stars and Stripes (@starsandstripes) April 23, 2024
Several other militant groups in the region joined in the attack against Israel, with some projectiles being fired by Iraqi militias and by the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Lebanese group Hezbollah launched some rockets towards its southern neighbors.
Despite the scale of the attacks, no one died and one young person was injured.
Furthermore, Israel retaliated against Iran in the form of an airstrike on a military base near the nuclear research facility at Isfahan. Iran has denied that there has been a strike while Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its role in the attack.
Iran had claimed that if any hostile power struck within its territory it would respond with a far larger barrage than the one earlier in April.
