Missile attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria

U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria were attacked with rockets four times in three days last week, U.S. officials told Task & Purpose. The back-to-back incidents marked the most attacks on American forces in the region in July in months.

No American soldiers were injured in the recent attacks on Al Asad air base in Iraq and the Euphrates Mission Support Site in Syria, US officials said.

The latest series of attacks began with the firing of two missiles at Al Asad air base on July 25, neither of which hit the base, US officials said.

The Mission Support Site Euphrates was also attacked on July 25, 26 and 27, with one rocket hitting the base without causing any injuries, officials said. U.S. troops returned fire after one of the attacks.

July saw a sharp increase in attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria. On July 16, two drones attacked Al Asad Air Base, with one hitting the base and causing “minimal damage,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Signh told reporters earlier this month. U.S. and coalition forces also destroyed a drone near Green Village in Syria, but it is unclear what the drone’s target was.

Although U.S. officials have not disclosed which groups they believe carried out the attacks, Singh told reporters on July 18 that groups backed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have carried out attacks against U.S. forces in the past.

“Most likely it is one of those affiliated groups, but beyond that I cannot give you any details,” Singh said at a press conference at the Pentagon.

Subscribe to Task & Purpose today. Get the latest military and culture news delivered daily to your inbox.

Following the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, American forces in the Middle East became the target of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella organization of Iranian-backed groups. Three Army Reserve soldiers were killed in January in a drone attack on a base in Jordan known as Tower 22.

The US military responded in February by attacking 85 targets in Iraq and Syria and killing a senior leader of an Iran-backed group.

Attacks on U.S. troops in the Middle East largely subsided after February, with the exception of an attack on the Rumalyn landing zone in Syria on April 21 and an attack on Al Asad air base on April 22.

Iran exercises “a high degree of control” over the militia groups that began attacking U.S. troops in the Middle East in the fall, said Major General Joel “JB” Vowell, who commands all American soldiers in Iraq and Syria as part of Operation Inherent Resolve.

Iran’s goals include exporting its revolution to the rest of the Middle East and gaining dominance there, Vowell told Task & Purpose in June, adding: “Iran will fight to the last proxy.”

Amid the proxy war between Iran and the United States, the terrorist militia “Islamic State” (IS) is trying to regroup, according to the US Central Command (CENTCOM). ISIS carried out more attacks in the first half of 2024 than in the whole of 2023.

“If this trend continues, ISIS will more than double the total number of attacks it has claimed responsibility for in 2023,” CENTCOM said in a July 16 press release.

Speaking to Task & Purpose, Vowell said ISIS’s numbers have diminished significantly from a few years ago and the group is only capable of conducting small-scale ambushes and attacks in Iraq and Syria.

However, the conditions that led to the emergence of IS in Syria remain unclear, he said.

“The causes of instability that led to the emergence of ISIS are still there,” Vowell said. “Frankly, there are economic problems in the Sunni areas. These instability problems are there: lack of education, lack of opportunity, lack of jobs. And in the deserts of the Middle Euphrates Valley, in the Sunni tribes, extremism is still simmering.”

The latest on Task & Purpose