BEIRUT.-Six Kurdish fighters were killed Sunday night in a drone attack on a base housing US troops in eastern Syria, in the first significant strike in Syria and Iraq following US retaliatory bombings over the weekend against Iranian-backed militias that have attacked their forces in the region.
The attack hit a training camp at the Al Omar base in the eastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour, according to the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led contingent supported by Washington. No casualties were reported among US troops at the base, where SDF commandos are trained.
An Iraqi militia group supported by Tehran, known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, released a video claiming responsibility for the attack that showed the launch of a drone from a specified location.
In late January, a drone strike by the same group killed three U.S. service members and injured dozens more at a desert base in Jordan. The US military carried out dozens of retaliatory strikes against Iranian-backed armed groups in western Iraq and eastern Syria, as well as the Houthis in Yemen.
The SDF initially accused “mercenaries supported by the Syrian regime” for Sunday’s attack, although in a second statement they blamed “Iranian-backed militias” after investigating the event.
The Iraqi militia group has launched dozens of drones against US military bases and troops in Iraq and Syria and has called for the withdrawal of US soldiers from both countries.
Tensions have soared in the Middle East during the war between Israel and Hamas, sparked by Hamas’s assault on southern Israel on October 7.
For its part, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based opposition war monitoring group, said at least seven SDF fighters had been killed in Sunday’s attack and at least 18 were wounded, some in critical condition. He did not indicate whether U.S. military personnel were among the casualties.
Sunday’s attack occurred two days after the US military carried out strikes against Iran-associated militia targets in Syria and Iraq.
The SDF said it had the right to respond to the attack.
The US military said it had hit four anti-ship missiles on Sunday that were prepared to fire on ships in the Red Sea from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen.
In a statement Monday morning, U.S. Central Command said the strikes were in self-defense after its forces determined that the missiles “posed an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region.” .
Sunday’s attacks came the day after the United States and Britain launched a second round of bombing raids against the Houthis that sought to undermine the group’s ability to attack ships in the Red Sea. Washington and London said they had hit 36 Houthi targets.
Source: With information from AP
