US Claims It Foiled Drone Attacks on Its Military Base in Iraq

Two American officials stated that US military forces intercepted two drones early Wednesday, successfully thwarting an attack in Iraq. This was the first attack of its kind on American forces in Iraq in over a year. The officials, who requested anonymity, declined to specify who was suspected of the attack on Al Asad Airbase. According to Reuters, with rising regional tensions during the Israel-Hamas war, Washington is on alert due to the activities of Iran-backed groups. An Iraqi security official and a Western diplomat reported that hours later on the same day (Wednesday), another drone attack targeting the Al Harir Airbase in Erbil, Kurdistan, where US forces are stationed, was also foiled. The Kurdistan Counter-Terrorism Organization, a security agency in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, announced that an armed drone crashed at 12:18 PM local time in a desert area near the village of Batas in the Harir region, but provided no further details. A lesser-known group called 'Tashkil al-Warithin' claimed responsibility for the attack on Harir. Last week, Iran-backed Iraqi armed groups threatened to target US interests with missiles and drones if Washington intervened in support of Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza. The US Department of Defense, the Pentagon, has sent air defense systems and munitions to Israel to support its closest ally in the Middle East, but US forces have not joined the war themselves.