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On January 7, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), an umbrella group of Iranian-backed armed factions, announced that it had attacked the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights as well as two bases of the United States military in Iraq and Syria.
The group said in a statement that it had struck a “military target” in the Golan Heights with “suitable weapons,” without elaborating.
Hebrew media didn’t report any warning sirens or blasts in the Golan and the Israeli Defense Forces didn’t announce any attack on the Heights.
In two other statements, the IRI said it had attacked U.S. bases near the town of Qasraq in the northeastern Syrian governorate of al-Hasakah and Ain al-Asad Air Base in the western Iraqi province of al-Anbar, which hosts American troops, with drones.
The attacks were an act of “resistance” against “U.S. occupation” and a response to “Israeli massacres” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the IRI noted in its three statements.
The IRI announced two attacks against the Golan Heights before and claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria since October 17, ten days after the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
The U.S. responded by targeting some of the group’s factions in both Iraq and Syria. Israel didn’t announce any retaliatory attacks. However, it was unofficially blamed for some strikes which were not claimed by the U.S. military, including one that targeted a truck near the town of al-Bukamal in the eastern Syrian governorate of Deir Ezzor on January 7.
