Seven fighters from Kurdish-led forces were killed in a drone attack on a US base where they are stationed in eastern Syria, an NGO said on Monday.
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The attack, claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of pro-Iranian groups, comes after retaliatory strikes by the United States on Friday night against elite Iranian forces and pro-Iranian armed groups in Syria and Iraq, which left at least 45 dead.
“Seven members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF, dominated by Kurds) stationed at the American Al-Omar base in the Deir Ezzor region were killed,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), which also reported twenty Injuries.
According to this UK-based NGO, which has an extensive network of sources in Syria, the attack targeted a section where FDS special forces are stationed at this base in a major oil field.
In a statement, the SDF denounced “a terrorist attack using a suicide drone (…) that directly targeted a military training academy in Al-Omar.”
OSDH director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP it was the “first attack by pro-Iranian groups on American bases since the attacks” carried out by Washington over the weekend.
In a statement published on several Telegram channels close to pro-Iranian armed groups, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack, which was carried out “on Sunday, February 4, with a drone against the American occupation base in the Al-Omar oil field was carried out”. in the heart of Syrian territory.
The SDF, which includes Arab and Syrian Christian factions, has led the fight against IS.
US forces are stationed at several bases in SDF-controlled areas as part of the international anti-jihadist coalition, and its base at the Al-Omar oil field is the largest in Syria.
According to Washington, the United States carried out strikes against 85 targets in seven different locations (four in Syria and three in Iraq), targeting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Iranian Ideological Army and pro-Iranian armed groups.
They promised more attacks in response to the Jan. 28 attack attributed by Washington to pro-Iranian groups on an American base in Jordan near the Syrian and Iraqi borders that killed three American soldiers.
Iran is backing armed groups that Washington accuses of being behind a surge in attacks on its forces in the Middle East amid the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.