Multiple rockets targeted a U.S. base near an oil field in Syria on Monday evening, a day after U.S. airstrikes hit facilities used …
Multiple rockets targeted a U.S. base near an oil field in Syria on Monday evening, a day after U.S. airstrikes hit facilities used by Iran-backed Shiite militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region. The U.S. military said there were “no injuries and damage is being assessed.” Col. Wayne Marotto, a spokesman for the U.S.-led mission against the Islamic State known as Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), said the attack against U.S. forces in Syria began at roughly 7:44 PM local time. Marotto said U.S. forces “acted in self-defense and conducted counter-battery artillery fire at rocket-launching positions.” Kurdish news service Rudaw quoted sources in the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who said “several artillery shells” landed on a key oil field in the Deir ez-Zor province of Syria, close to where the American troops were positioned. The SDF is working with the U.S. military against the Islamic State and other extremist forces in Syria. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “Iran-backed militias” launched the rockets against the American base at al-Mayadeen in Deir ez-Zor. An oil field called al-Omar is close to the base. The Observatory reported explosions in the city of al-Mayadeen, under the control of Iranian forces and their militia proxies. These detonations presumably came from the U.S. counter-battery artillery fire Marotto described. Syrian state media reported Monday that “missiles” launched by an unspecified force “targeted a military base of the U.S. occupation forces in the al-Omar oil field. The current clash with Iran’s militia proxies in Syria began when the militias used drones and rockets to attack American personnel in Iraq. After three months of such attacks, President Joe Biden ordered airstrikes against three militia positions in Iraq and Syria. “At President Biden’s direction, U.S. military forces earlier this evening conducted defensive precision airstrikes against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region.
