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New drone attack against US troops in Iraq
New drone attack against US troops in Iraq
by AFP Staff Writers
Arbil, Iraq (AFP) Dec 25, 2023

A drone attack on Monday targeted a military base in northern Iraq used by US and anti-jihadist coalition forces, US and Iraqi officials said, in the latest such incident.

The number of attacks targeting the coalition, which deployed troops to Iraq to fight the Islamic State group, has surged since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.

In Monday's incident a drone was launched towards a base close to Arbil airport, in Iraqi Kurdistan, Yehia Rasool, the Iraqi prime minister's spokesman for military affairs, said in a statement.

The attack caused injuries, Rasool said, without giving further details.

A US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to AFP that a drone attack was launched "at US and coalition forces" at the airbase, adding "we are still awaiting injury and damage assessments (if any)".

Not long after the drone attack, Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed to have launched a drone against another base, close to Harir which is northeast of Arbil.

That base is also home to US and coalition forces.

Islamic Resistance in Iraq is a loose formation of armed groups affiliated with the Hashed al-Shaabi coalition of former paramilitaries that are now integrated into Iraq's regular armed forces.

A tally by US military officials has counted 103 attacks against its troops in Iraq and Syria since October 17.

The majority of those attacks have been claimed by Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which opposes US support for Israel in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In early December, the US embassy in Baghdad was targeted with rocket fire. That attack, the first of its kind since the start of the war in Gaza, was not claimed by any group.

The office of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani announced several arrests and said some had links to the security services.

Washington has around 2,500 soldiers deployed in Iraq and about 900 in Syria. The international coalition has been fighting the Islamic State group since 2014.

Iran Guards say Israeli strike kills senior general in Syria
Tehran (AFP) Dec 25, 2023 - A senior general with Iran's Revolutionary Guards was killed Monday by an Israeli air strike in Syria, the military force and Iranian state media said.

There was no immediate comment from Israel, which has repeatedly said it will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence in Syria.

Razi Moussavi "was killed during an attack by the Zionist regime a few hours ago in Zeinabiyah district in the suburbs of Damascus," Tehran's official IRNA news agency reported, using a different name for Sayyida Zeinab south of the Syrian capital.

IRNA said Moussavi was "one of the most experienced advisors" of Quds Force, the foreign arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The general was "active in the field of providing logistical support to the axis of resistance in Syria," IRNA added, referring to groups backed by Tehran and arrayed against Israel.

The IRGC confirmed Moussavi's death in a statement, saying he was killed in a "missile attack".

The statement added that Moussavi was a companion of General Qassem Soleimani, Iran's revered Quds commander who was killed in Baghdad in a US drone strike in 2020.

Next week Iran will mark the fourth anniversary of Soleimani's assassination.

A Britain-based monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported Israeli strikes Monday on positions used by Iranian groups and by Lebanon's powerful Tehran-aligned Hezbollah in the Sayyida Zeinab area.

Residents of the area reported hearing loud explosions and seeing columns of smoke rising from farms there.

Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its northern neighbour since Syria's civil war began in 2011, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions.

Israel, which rarely comments on reported strikes in Syria, has intensified attacks there particularly against Hezbollah since the start of its war against Hamas -- also backed by Iran -- triggered by the Palestinian militant group's deadly October 7 attacks.

The Islamic republic, which supports Hamas financially and militarily, has hailed the attacks as a "success" but denied any direct involvement.

According to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures, about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Israel on October 7.

Israel's relentless retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 20,400 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run coastal territory.

Iran does not recognise Israel and has made support for the Palestinian cause a centrepiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

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