U.S. base in al-Tanf in southern Syria (file photo)
Baghdad, November 19 (RHC)-- Iraq’s anti-terror resistance front has carried out a drone attack on an American military base in the Arab country’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in response to the US-backed Israeli onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip.
In a statement cited by Iraq’s Saberin News on Sunday, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of anti-terror fighters, claimed responsibility for an overnight attack on the al-Harir Air Base in Erbil in northern Iraq and said the operation was in retaliation for Israel’s ongoing crimes in Gaza.
“In response to the crimes committed by the enemy against our people in Gaza, the fighters of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq targeted the American occupation base al-Harir in northern Iraq, with a drone that directly hit its target,” the statement said.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq also said it had attacked the Al-Tanf US occupation base in the central Syrian province of Homs and targeted the strategic military site with combat drones. The Iraqi resistance said in a similar statement that the drone attack was launched “in response to the crimes committed by the enemy against our people in Gaza.”
Late on Saturday, Lebanon’s Arabic-language al-Mayadeen television news network reported several explosions at the US base in al-Omar oil field, east of Syria’s Dayr al-Zawr Province. The television news network also said the Conoco gas field, which houses American occupation forces in the eastern Syrian province, had been targeted by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq with a salvo of missiles.
Abu Ali al-Askari, who is in charge of the security bureau of Iraq’s anti-terror Kata’ib Hezbollah, said the strikes by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq are proceeding based on the strategy of “exhausting the enemy,” as the Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza lays “historic responsibility” on the world and the international community.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has conducted dozens of attacks against US occupation forces and their military bases in Iraq and Syria since the Tel Aviv regime, having received unwavering support from Washington, initiated a relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip on October 7.
The Iraqi resistance front said the attacks were carried out in retaliation for US support of Israel’s bloody aggression against and genocide in the besieged area.
According to the advocacy group Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, Israel has sharply escalated a “war of starvation” against the 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip as a tool of subjugation.
Before the Israeli war, 70 percent of the children in Gaza already suffered from varying health issues including malnutrition, anemia, and weakened immunity. The figure has increased to more than 90 percent as a result of Israel’s bombardment, the Monitor said.