WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (TASS) – US bases in Iraq and Syria have been attacked around 140 times since October, 2023, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh has told reporters.

She said that 57 of these attacks targeted US bases in Iraq and 83 - in Syria.

In a statement, posted on the Telegram messenger, Shiite groups earlier warned the United States that they will step up their attacks in Syria and Iraq, because "the American enemy continues to provide military aid to the Israeli army, which is killing civilians in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 200 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ aggressive actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.

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