Pentagon officials told the press this Tuesday that American forces based in the Middle East were attacked up to 13 times over the last week, between October 17 and 24.
According to Brigadier General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, the attacks against American troops occurred in Iraq (10) and Syria (3) and were carried out using a mix of one-way attack drones and rockets. The press secretary did not clarify the number of victims or injuries during the attacks. Still, the Pentagon had previously revealed that an American contractor had died of a heart attack due to a false alarm at the Al Asad air base in Iraq.
Ryder’s report comes just a day after Pentagon officials accused Iran of orchestrating or supporting attacks against American troops in the Middle East, taking advantage of the escalation of the war between Israel and Hamas after the terrorist group burst into Israeli territory, murdering, torturing and kidnapping thousands of civilians.
While Pentagon officials clarified to the press that they have no evidence against Iran, they did say that the attacks have “Iranian fingerprints all over it.”
“It’s been well-documented and you’ve heard U.S. officials across the podiums as well as policy leaders for years talk about Iran’s funding, equipping, guidance and direction, to partners and proxies across the region,” a senior defense official told reporters.
“That includes Lebanese Hezbollah, militia groups in Iraq and Syria, as well as the Houthis, in Yemen. So I think it’s fair to say when you see this uptick in activity and attacks by many of these groups, there’s Iranian fingerprints all over it,” he added.
