Two futile drone strikes on Tuesday in Iraqi Kurdistan targeted a military base at Arbil airport where forces of the international anti-jihadist coalition are stationed, local authorities said.

Asked about this by Agence France-Presse, an official of the US Department of Defense assured, on condition of anonymity, that yesterday’s attacks did not cause “casualties” or “damage to infrastructure”.

The number of attacks against troops of the US and other countries, which are part of the international anti-jihadist coalition, deployed in Iraq and Syria, increased by leaps and bounds after the outbreak of the Israel/Hamas war on October 7, triggered by the unprecedented attack on sectors of Israeli territory fighters of the Palestinian Islamist movement, in power in the Gaza Strip, in recent decades supported by Iran.

Yesterday morning, in two separate cases, “three drones attacked the international coalition”, the anti-terrorist service of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan said yesterday morning.

In the first attack, “against the military base at Arbil airport, two drones were shot down while in the air,” according to its statement. A third remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicle then fell to the ground without exploding on impact, the same source said.

The Pentagon later yesterday confirmed the strikes in Iraqi Kurdistan, with no casualties or damage, without mentioning the drone that did not explode.

Responsibility for yesterday’s attacks against “Arbil airport” was claimed by an organization calling itself “Islamic Resistance in Iraq”, through channels on the Telegram platform close to Tehran.

It is the same organization that has claimed responsibility for several other similar attacks in recent weeks.

In a surprise visit to Baghdad on Sunday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called attacks on US troops “totally unacceptable”. “We will take all necessary measures to protect our people,” he explained.

Since October 17, US and allied forces deployed in Iraq and Syria have been the target of 38 drone or rocket attacks, injuring, in most cases lightly, 45 Americans, the Pentagon announced Tuesday.

Washington blames Iran for these actions — it says they are Iranian “proxy” attacks.

The attacks were condemned by Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who came to power with the support of an alliance of pro-Iranian parties, promising “investigations”.

Washington keeps about 900 of its troops deployed in Syria and nearly 2,500 more in Iraq as part of operations against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group by an international coalition that saw the light of day in 2014.

The coalition assures that its involvement in Iraq is limited to an auxiliary and advisory role.