US base in Syria comes under drone attack

TEL ABYAD, Syria

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group representing several Iraqi armed factions, claimed responsibility for launching a kamikaze drone attack Tuesday against the Al-Shaddadi base in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province, where US forces are stationed.

The group issued a statement citing its commitment to "resisting the American occupation forces in Iraq and the region" and linked the attack to its response to the "Zionist entity's (Israel’s) massacres" of the people of Gaza.

It is not known whether there are casualties in the attack and the US has not issued a statement so far on the incident.

Earlier in the day, a rocket attack was carried out on the base.

Recently, attacks using kamikaze drones and ground-to-ground weapons have targeted US military bases in the Al-Tanf region in southeastern Syria, Malikiyya district near the Iraqi border, town Al-Shaddadi in Hasakah province and in Deir ez-Zor province.

Territories of Deir ez-Zor, located east of the Euphrates River, are under the occupation of the US-backed PKK/YPG terrorist group, while the provincial capital and other rural areas are controlled by Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime and Iran-backed groups.

Iran-backed groups occasionally launch attacks with rockets and armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on US bases on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River.

In a speech on Oct. 17 last year, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said if Israeli attacks continued, the "resistance forces" in the region would take action.

Following this, attacks with kamikaze drones and rockets were launched against US military bases in Syria and Iraq.

Iranian-backed groups in Syria and Iraq claimed responsibility.

The US administration, blaming Iran for the attacks, announced that air raids had been conducted several times on facilities used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated groups in eastern Syria starting from Oct. 27 last year.

*Writing by Esra Tekin in Istanbul