US shoots down attack drone in Iraq

WASHINGTON: American forces shot down an attack drone on Friday near a base where the country´s troops are deployed in western Iraq, a US defence official said.

The attempted drone attack came after the United States struck two military facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran´s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups, which Washington says are behind a spike in attacks targeting American forces in the region.

“US forces engaged a one-way attack drone a few kilometers from Al-Assad Air Base, Iraq, and successfully shot it down without further incident,” the US defense official told AFP. A group calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq -- which has claimed many of the recent attacks on US and allied forces in Iraq and Syria -- said it carried out a drone attack targeting the base.

The US official also said there was a “multi-rocket attack” in Syria on Thursday against American and other forces from the international coalition against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.