US forces in the Middle East were attacked more than eight times before Secretary Lloyd Austin returned to work from the hospital.

Since October 17, US forces in Iraq and Syria have been targeted at least 128 times.
According to Fox News, American military in the Middle East were targeted eight times while Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was in the hospital before returning to work on Friday.

Five more occurrences occurred after Austin returned to work on Friday night, bringing the total number of attacks to 128 since October 17 and 13 while he was hospitalized.

On January 1, the Biden administration official was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after complaining of “severe pain.” He was brought to the critical care unit (ICU) and “resum[ed] his duties” on Friday, but he is still in the hospital.

Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said Austin’s illness was caused by complications from an elective medical procedure, but he didn’t go into detail about his hospitalization.

“Since resuming his duties on Friday evening, the Secretary has received operational updates and has provided necessary guidance to his team,” Ryder said in a Fox News Digital statement. “He has full access to required communications capabilities and continues to monitor DoD’s day-to-day operations worldwide.”

Republican politicians have chastised the Pentagon and the Biden administration for supposedly failing to communicate effectively about the hospitalization. Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker told Fox News Digital that the episode “further erodes trust in the Biden Administration, which has repeatedly failed to inform the public in a timely fashion about critical events.

The recent Middle East attacks targeted US forces in Iraq and Syria and began as the Israel-Hamas conflict escalated.
Terrorist groups sponsored by Iran have regularly targeted American forces with a combination of one-way drones and missiles. On January 2, one-way attack drones hit Syria’s Mission Support Site Green Village twice and Iraq’s Erbil Airbase once. On the same day, several rockets were launched into Syria’s Patrol Base Shaddadi.

On January 3, a one-way attack drone was fired at US forces in Syria’s Al-Tanf Garrison.

On January 4, a one-way attack drone targeted Mission Support Site Green Village in Syria, while two additional drones targeted Al-Tanf Garrison in Syria and Patrol Base Shaddadi in Syria on January 5.

There were no reported casualties in any of the eight events. There was also no known infrastructure damage.