A drone attack and rocket launches on Monday targeted two military bases in Iraq and Syria that house forces of the international anti-jihadist coalition, a US military official said.

The responsibility was taken once again by the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq”, a nebula of fighters considered to belong to pro-Iranian armed groups, components of the Hasd al-Shaabi (“Popular Mobilization Units”), an alliance officially integrated into the Iraqi regular forces.

The attacks by pro-Iranian paramilitaries are due, according to the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq”, to the US support for Israel in the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip since October 7.

In western Iraq, a “drone attack” targeted the Ain al-Assad air base, with no casualties or damage, according to the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In northern Syria, “rockets” were fired at a base in Ash Sadadi district, he added.

In total, Washington counts at least 92 attacks in Iraq and Syria since October 17, i.e. ten days after the outbreak of the Israel/Hamas war.

On Friday, rocket barrages targeted the US embassy in Baghdad for the first time since the current escalation began. On the same day, there were at least five attacks against US and international coalition troops in Iraq and Syria.

On Saturday, Kataeb Hezbollah (“Brigades of the Party of God”), a powerful component of Hashd, said the latest attacks were part of the implementation of “new rules of engagement”.

“Our operations against the American occupation forces will continue until the departure of the last American soldier from Iraqi territory,” he stressed.

Washington maintains some 900 troops deployed in Syria and another nearly 2,500 in Iraq as part of the operation against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, by an international coalition formed in 2014.

Last week, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin accused Kataeb Hezbollah and al-Nujaba, another pro-Iranian paramilitary group, of being “responsible for most of the attacks against coalition personnel” and said the US “reserves the right to retaliate with decisive way against these organizations”, according to a press release released by his services.

The Pentagon has already launched strikes against fighters of these two organizations in Iraq as well as facilities it says were linked to Iran in Syria.

On Friday, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Zia al-Sudani pledged again that Baghdad would “protect diplomatic missions.”