On Sunday, January 28, The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group that includes the militias Kataib Hezbollah and Harakat al-Nujaba among others, claimed responsibility for a drone attack that killed three US military personnel and injured 34 others in a base in northeastern Jordan, near the Syria border. In the media coverage of the attack, it was repeatedly mentioned that these militias have launched 165 attacks on US troops – 66 in Iraq and 98 in Syria – since October 2023. While it helps put the attack in context, this is a misleading figure. This conflict began much earlier than last October, and thus the total number of attacks the US has faced from these militias is actually much higher. Indeed, Sunday's drone attack was just the latest episode in an undeclared war between the United States and Iran-affiliated Iraqi Shia militias that has been raging across the region for more than five years. More than six years ago, in October 2017, in an article published on this very page, I predicted that US President Donald Trump's controversial decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or the "Iran nuclear deal", would result in attacks by Iran-backed Iraqi militias on US forces in Iraq and across the region.

There have been at least 160 attacks on U.S. troops in the Middle East since mid-October, following this weekend's attack on a base in Jordan near the Syrian border that left three American soldiers dead and dozens of others injured, U.S. officials said. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin addressed Sunday's attack and vowed the U.S. would "take all necessary actions" to keep U.S. troops in the region safe. "Let me start with my outrage and sorrow for the deaths of three brave U.S. troops in Jordan and for the other troops who were wounded," Austin said. He added, "The president and I will not tolerate attack on U.S. forces. And we will take all necessary actions to defend the U.S. and our troops."

Iraqi forces shot down an armed drone on Tuesday over the Erbil airport in northern Iraq, where U.S. and other international forces are stationed, according to a report. The Kurdistan Counter Terrorism, an Iraqi semi-autonomous regional security agency, said an "illegal militia" launched an armed drone against the Erbil airport that was shot down at approximately 09:52 a.m. It is not immediately clear if the foiled attack caused any damage or casualties. U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria have been attacked more than 90 times since the start of the conflict. The Pentagon does not count attacks on U.S. warships at sea in this number.

The United States has accused Russian fighter jets of flying dangerously close to several of its drones over Syria, setting off flares and forcing the MQ-9 Reapers to take evasive action. US Air Forces Central released a video of Wednesday's encounter, showing a Russian SU-35 fighter closing in on the drone. Footage showed the Russian pilot positioning his aircraft in front of the Reaper and turning on the afterburner, dramatically increasing speed and air pressure and making it harder to operate the drone, the air force said in comments accompanying the video. So-called parachute flares were also released. "The Russian SU-35 fighter aircraft employed parachute flares in the flight path of US MQ-9 aircraft," the air force said.

The United States military said a helicopter accident in northeast Syria has left 22 US service members injured, though no enemy fire was reported at the time of the "mishap". "The service members are receiving treatment for their injuries and 10 have been evacuated to higher care facilities outside of the CENTCOM AOR [US Central Command Area of Responsibility]", the US military said in a statement on Monday. An investigation is under way to determine the cause of the accident on Sunday in northeast Syria, US Central Command said in a statement. The statement added that "no enemy fire was reported" at the time of the accident. US forces operating in Syria since 2015 have come under sporadic attacks from ISIL (ISIS) fighters and Iranian-backed groups operating in the country.

The United States military has said it carried out multiple air strikes in eastern Syria against Iran-aligned groups who it blamed for a deadly drone attack earlier that killed a contractor, injured another, and wounded five US troops, the Pentagon said. The US attacks late on Thursday night were in retaliation for an attack against a US-led coalition base near Hassakeh in northeast Syria at approximately 01:38pm (10:38 GMT) the same day, the Pentagon said in a statement. US intelligence has assessed that the drone was Iranian in origin and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes targeted groups affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in eastern Syria. "The airstrikes were conducted in response to today's attack as well as a series of recent attacks against Coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with the IRGC," Austin said in a statement. Austin said he authorised the retaliatory strikes at the direction of US President Joe Biden.

Schuyler Moore, Chief Technology Officer at US Central Command (CENTCOM), said Wednesday that such ideas are expected to play a much bigger role in bolstering American troops. CENTCOM is the US combatant command that covers the Middle East and parts of northern Africa and southern Asia. "This tool is intended to do is to provide the opportunity for the boots on the ground that are closest to the threat and closest to their operational environment to mimic that environment as accurately as possible and to, as well, deploy threats against their base and to train against threats on their base that they see and that they interact with sometimes daily," said army Sergent Mickey Reeve, who developed the counter-unmanned aerial system training software. He added that the US will use the Red Sands Integrated Experimentation Center in Saudi Arabia to "pressure test" the new technology, but it will be moving around the region. Sergeant Reeve noted the technology is not tailored solely towards Iranian-made drones, "but it was built to emulate any sort of Unmanned Aerial Systems."

Dramatic new drone video of the Niger ambush that killed four American soldiers shows U.S. forces desperately trying to escape, and fighting for their lives when friendly Nigerien forces mistook them for the enemy.