Fourteen pro-Iranian fighters were killed by US airstrikes in eastern Syria overnight from Thursday to Friday, carried out in response to a drone attack that killed an American and injured six others.
The drone attack took place on Thursday against a maintenance facility at a base near Al-Hasakah, killing an American contractor and injuring five American soldiers and another contractor, according to the Pentagon.
In response, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said he had authorized “precision airstrikes” in eastern Syria “against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.”
The strikes killed six pro-Iranian fighters at an “arms depot in the town of Deir Ezzor” and eight others at positions of pro-Iranian groups near Mayadine and Boukamal, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Man (OSDH).
Iranian groups and their allies, who are fighting alongside the regime in Damascus, are strongly established in these regions near the border with Iraq, important crossing points for arms bound for Syria.
Nine of the fourteen killed are Syrians, said the OSDH, based in the United Kingdom but which has an extensive network of sources in Syria.
On Friday, ten rockets were fired at US and coalition forces “around 8:05 a.m. (0605 GMT) in Syria” against the al-Omar oil field, called the “green zone”, according to the US Military Command for the Middle East (Centcom).
The director of the OSDH, Rami Abdel Rahmane, had claimed earlier that rockets had been fired by “groups affiliated with Tehran”.
These attacks caused no injuries on the coalition side or damage, but a rocket which hit a house, nearly five kilometers from the base, caused “significant damage”, “slightly injuring two women and two children”, a American captain Abigail Hammock told AFP.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the de facto army of the Kurds, allies of the Americans, announced that the rocket fire had injured two civilians.
On Friday, US President Joe Biden assured that “the United States does not seek conflict with Iran, but (is) ready to act forcefully to protect its people”.
His minister Lloyd Austin had earlier explained that the American strikes were “in response to today’s attack as well as a series of recent attacks against coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards”.
These strikes were intended to show “that we take the safety of our personnel seriously and that we will respond (…) if we are threatened”, declared Pat Ryder, spokesperson for the Pentagon.
Several hundred American soldiers are in Syria, within a coalition fighting against the remnants of the Islamic State (IS) group. They are frequently targeted by militias.
US troops are supporting the SDF, which led the battle that ousted IS from the last territories it controlled in Syria in 2019.
Two of the US soldiers injured on Thursday were treated at the scene of the attack, while the other three soldiers and a US contractor were medically evacuated to Iraq, the Pentagon said.
In August 2022, the US president ordered similar retaliatory strikes in the oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor after a coalition outpost was attacked by multiple drones, which left no casualties. .
Iran says it deployed its forces in Syria at the invitation of Damascus, and only as advisers.
The Revolutionary Guards constitute the ideological arm of the Iranian army and are qualified as a terrorist group by Washington.
On several occasions, the international coalition led by the United States has admitted to carrying out strikes in eastern Syria against pro-Iranian fighters. Israel also regularly carries out strikes there but rarely claims them.
24/03/2023 23:14:26 – Beirut (AFP) © 2023 AFP