Western officials are warning that the risk of regional “spillover” from the Israel-Hamas war is real, after US forces in the region faced increasing threats and American bases in Iraq and Syria were repeatedly targeted by drone attacks.
The Ain al-Asad airbase, which hosts US and other international forces in western Iraq, was targeted by drones and missiles on Thursday evening, according to security sources speaking to the Reuters news agency. Multiple blasts were reportedly heard inside the base.
The Iraqi military said it closed the area around the base and started a search operation. It was not clear yet whether the attacks caused casualties or damages.
The assault came after rockets hit another military base hosting US forces near Baghdad’s international airport on Thursday, according to Iraqi police. US military forces in Iraq were also targeted on Wednesday in two separate drone attacks, with one causing minor injuries to a small number of troops even though the US military managed to intercept the armed drone.
On Wednesday, a drone hit US forces in Syria resulting in minor injuries, while another one was brought down.
Earlier on Thursday, the USS Carney, a Navy destroyer in the northern Red Sea, intercepted three land attack cruise missiles and several drones that were launched by Houthi forces in Yemen.
A Pentagon spokesperson told reporters the missiles were “potentially” headed toward Israel but said the US hasn’t finished its assessment of what they were targeting. The action by the Carney potentially represented the first shots by the US military in the defense of Israel in this conflict.
President Joe Biden has sent naval power to the Middle East – including two aircraft carriers, other warships and about 2,000 Marines – as US officials said Washington is on heightened alert for activity by Iran-backed groups with regional tensions soaring during the Israel-Hamas war.
Israel has called up a record 360,000 reservists and has been bombarding the Gaza Strip following Hamas’s 7 October assault, which killed about 1,400 people, mostly civilians. At least 3,785 Palestinians have been killed and 12,493 wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza, according to the Hamas run health ministry in Gaza.
However, the Pentagon says it does not see a link between the rise in attacks on US and Israeli forces in the Middle East and the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Last week, Iraqi armed groups aligned with Iran threatened to target US interests with missiles and drones if Washington intervened to support Israel against Hamas in Gaza.
On Thursday, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the risk of regional spillover from the Israel-Hamas war is “real.”
Speaking at the Hudson Institute in Washington, Von der Leyen also said dialogue between Israel and its neighbours must continue.
“We have seen the Arab streets fill with rage all across the region. So the risk of a regional spillover is real,” she said, adding “Iran, Hamas’ patron, only wants to fuel the fire of chaos.”
The US has 2,500 troops in Iraq, and 900 more in neighbouring Syria, on a mission to advise and assist local forces in combating Islamic State, which in 2014 seized swathes of territory in both countries.
In Iraq, tension over the war in Gaza had already been high. The country’s top Shi’ite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, last week condemned Israel and called on the world to stand up to the “terrible brutality” in besieged Gaza.
Kataib Hezbollah, a powerful armed faction with close ties to Iran, accused the US of supporting Israel in “killing innocent people” and said it should leave Iraq.
In past years, Iranian-backed militias in Iraq regularly targeted US forces in Iraq. Such attacks had abated under a truce in place since last year, and Iraq has had a period of relative calm.