Iran-Backed Attacks on U.S. Troops in Iraq and Syria Hit ‘Nearly 140’

There have been “nearly 140” recent Iran-backed attacks on American troops stationed in Iraq and Syria, the Pentagon revealed Thursday.

“To date, there have been approximately 140 attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria. They have 57 attacks — attacks in Iraq and 83 attacks in Syria,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said during a press briefing in response to a question.

The new spate of attacks on U.S. troops began in mid-October, after the Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,200 and kidnapping about 240.

The attacks have continued over the last month, despite the U.S. hitting back at those forces.

Between October 17 and December 15, there were nearly 100 attacks — or an average of 30 per month. The new tally shows those attacks continued roughly at the same pace into January.

The Pentagon argues that the attacks are not related to the Israel-Hamas conflict, and do not count as a widening of that conflict, despite them occurring in Iraq and Syria.

The U.S. has surged military assets to the region to specifically prevent the Israel-Hamas conflict from including Lebanon, and claim that so far, those efforts have been successful. However, at the same time Iran-proxy forces have attacked U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, Iran-backed Houthi forces have begun attacking U.S. military and commercial vessels with missiles and drones in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

The U.S. began striking Houthi targets in Yemen last week, but the attacks have continued through this week.

There have been at least 66 U.S. troops injured in the attacks against them in Iraq and Syria, including at least one critically.

Last week, two Navy SEALs went missing during an operation to board a ship suspected of carrying weapons from Iran to Yemen.

Asked what the message to Iran is, Singh said Thursday:

I think our message has been very clear from the beginning. We know Iran funds, supports, equips, trains these groups, the very groups that you just listed out in places throughout — whether it be Iraq and Syria, in Lebanon, in Yemen, we know Iran’s hand is behind all of these groups. And so our message has been very clear. We don’t seek a regional conflict. We don’t want to see a regional conflict, and we certainly don’t want what’s happening in Gaza to spill out into a larger regional or wider-scale war.

She then added the Pentagon has called on Iran “repeatedly to stop and that’s what you’re going to see us continuing to do.”

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