Iraqi Militias Launch Drone Strikes on US Base in Eastern Syria

A patrol of American soldiers on December 12 on the outskirts of Rumailan in Hasakah, northeastern Syria, which the Kurds control. (AFP)
A patrol of American soldiers on December 12 on the outskirts of Rumailan in Hasakah, northeastern Syria, which the Kurds control. (AFP)
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Iraqi Militias Launch Drone Strikes on US Base in Eastern Syria

A patrol of American soldiers on December 12 on the outskirts of Rumailan in Hasakah, northeastern Syria, which the Kurds control. (AFP)
A patrol of American soldiers on December 12 on the outskirts of Rumailan in Hasakah, northeastern Syria, which the Kurds control. (AFP)

A group calling itself the "Islamic Resistance in Iraq" launched drone strikes on the US Rumailan base in Syria’s Hasakah after 25 militants were killed in Israeli airstrikes against alleged pro-Iran militia sites.

The militia revealed in a statement that the attack was in response to "Israeli massacres against the people in Gaza" and as part of its "resistance against the US occupation in Iraq and the region."

Iranian-backed groups have launched over 100 attacks on US military bases in Iraq and Syria.

Explosions were heard at the American Kharab Al-Jir base in Rumailan countryside, eastern Syria, as a result of an attack with two successive batches of drones and missiles.

The American forces downed some of the drones; however, no causalities were reported as fighter jets of the international coalition to combat ISIS flew over the area, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

The Observatory documented 67 attacks against US bases in Syria since October 19.

At least 25 Iran-backed fighters were killed in air strikes on Friday night in eastern Syria, the Observatory added.

SOHR suggested that Israel may be behind the attack.

Headquartered in London, the war monitor said that the raids targeted posts of the Iranian militias in the Iranian security zone, posts in the 47th Regiment in the desert of al-Bukamal, a convoy belonging to the militias after entering the Syrian territory coming from Iraq, headquarters, a military shipment, an ammunition warehouse, and vehicles in al-Bukamal and its countryside near the Syrian-Iraqi border.

SOHR noted that Israel targeted Syrian territories 45 times since the war on Gaza in October, where it documented 28 attacks: 28 airstrikes and 17 rocket attacks by ground forces.

Those attacks destroyed 28 targets and left 77 combatants and two civilians dead.

Israel often targets sites in Syria to prevent Iran from strengthening its military presence in the region through its militias.

The US bases in SDF-controlled northeastern Syria have been targeted daily by rocket shells and drones since Israel declared war on Gaza.

There are nine US bases in Syria: one in al-Tanf, two in Deir Ezzor's countryside, and six in Hasakah.



With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
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With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)

After weeks of Israeli bombardment left them with nowhere else to go, hundreds of Palestinians have ended up in a former Gaza prison built to hold murderers and thieves.

Yasmeen al-Dardasi said she and her family passed wounded people they were unable to help as they evacuated from a district in the southern city of Khan Younis towards its Central Correction and Rehabilitation Facility.

They spent a day under a tree before moving on to the former prison, where they now live in a prayer room. It offers protection from the blistering sun, but not much else.

Dardasi's husband has a damaged kidney and just one lung, but no mattress or blanket.

"We are not settled here either," said Dardasi, who like many Palestinians fears she will be uprooted once again.

Israel has said it goes out of its way to protect civilians in its war with the Palestinian group Hamas, which runs Gaza and led the attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that sparked the latest conflict.

Palestinians, many of whom have been displaced several times, say nowhere is free of Israeli bombardment, which has reduced much of Gaza to rubble.

An Israeli air strike killed at least 90 Palestinians in a designated humanitarian zone in the Al-Mawasi area on July 13, the territory's health ministry said, in an attack that Israel said targeted Hamas' elusive military chief Mohammed Deif.

On Thursday, Gaza's health ministry said Israeli military strikes on areas in eastern Khan Younis had killed 14 people.

Entire neighborhoods have been flattened in one of the most densely populated places in the world, where poverty and unemployment have long been widespread.

According to the United Nations, nine in ten people across Gaza are now internally displaced.

Israeli soldiers told Saria Abu Mustafa and her family that they should flee for safety as tanks were on their way, she said. The family had no time to change so they left in their prayer clothes.

After sleeping outside on sandy ground, they too found refuge in the prison, among piles of rubble and gaping holes in buildings from the battles which were fought there. Inmates had been released long before Israel attacked.

"We didn't take anything with us. We came here on foot, with children walking with us," she said, adding that many of the women had five or six children with them and that water was hard to find.

She held her niece, who was born during the conflict, which has killed her father and brothers.

When Hamas-led gunmen burst into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7 they killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the air and ground offensive Israel launched in response, Palestinian health officials say.

Hana Al-Sayed Abu Mustafa arrived at the prison after being displaced six times.

If Egyptian, US and Qatari mediators fail to secure a ceasefire they have long said is close, she and other Palestinians may be on the move once again. "Where should we go? All the places that we go to are dangerous," she said.