US Forces In Syria Targeted By Drones, Officials Confirm
US forces in Syria brought down two hostile drones, leading to some minor injuries, US officials said on Thursday, with Washington expecting activity by Iran-backed groups.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attack took place on Wednesday against US forces at Al-Tanf base, near Syria's borders with Iraq and Jordan.
The officials did not say who was responsible for the attack, but Iranian backed militia groups have targeted the bases multiple times in the past.
Lebanon's Iran-aligned Al Mayadeen TV and Fars News in Iran, affiliated with Revolutionary Guard, both reported on Thursday that two US military bases in Syria have come under attack.
Al Mayadeen reported a drone attack on the Al-Tanf base and a missile attack on the Conoco base in the countryside of the northern Deir al-Zor region. It gave no further information.
US military forces in Iraq were targeted on Wednesday in two separate drone attacks, with one causing minor injuries to a small number of troops even though the US military managed to intercept the armed drone.
Since Iran-backed Hamas declared war on Israel on October 7 after an invasion by air, land, and sea, there has been significant concern that the regime will activate its other proxies in the region on Israel's borders with Lebanon and Syria, and further afield including its Yemeni proxy, the Houthis.
The United States has 2,500 troops in Iraq, and 900 more in neighboring Syria, on a mission to advise and assist local forces in combating Islamic State, which in 2014 seized swathes of territory in both countries.
With Reporting by Reuters