BAGHDAD, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- An Iraqi Shiite militia claimed on Monday responsibility for six attacks on four military bases, two of them were U.S. bases in Syria, and two were Iraqi military bases housing U.S. forces.
An armed group calling itself the "Islamic Resistance in Iraq," which is an umbrella body for Iranian-backed Iraqi militias, claimed in an online statement that its fighters carried out three attacks at different times on Monday on the Ayn al-Asad Airbase near the town of al-Baghdadi, some 190 km northwest of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
The group also said its fighters attacked a military base housing U.S. forces near the airport of Erbil, the capital city of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq, said the statement without giving further details.
In addition, the armed group claimed responsibility for two more attacks on two U.S. military bases in Syria, one in the northeastern Tell Beydar area near the town of al-Hasakah and the other on al-Tanf military base near Syria's borders with Iraq and Jordan, according to the statement.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, confirmed in a statement that drones attacked the Qasrok military base, which is close to the U.S. base in the Tell Beydar area in Syria.
It noted that an anti-aircraft missile fired from the U.S. base in the Tell Beydar area shot down a drone before it reached the base.
The war monitor said in a separate statement that the U.S. forces shot down at least two drones that attacked the al-Tanf military base at dawn.
While casualties haven't been reported yet, the attacks are believed to be part of a series of retaliatory measures against the U.S. forces amid the latest conflict in Gaza, said the observatory.
The incident marks the 23rd recorded attack on U.S. bases in Syria since Oct. 19, according to the observatory. ■
